Up until very recently, press coverage usually came from tween magazines that offered uniformly positive, mostly wholesome coverage. “We never use the word ‘sex,’ ” said Molly MacDermot, the editor in chief of the magazines Twist and M.  But now it is not unusual for stars who have not yet had their sweet 16 to be scrutinized by the fashion police on the red carpet.  Tween fans can be just as merciless as they blog away.  “Someone can blog about how terrible your outfit is or somebody can post a rumor and, whether it’s true or not, it’s out there,” said Leesa Coble, the editor in chief of Tiger Beat and Bop magazines, which cater to the 10-to-14 set.  “When you’re 13 or 14, that’s hurtful,” she said. ”You’re trying to figure out who you are at this stage. You may have money and fame, but you’re still 13.”  Cindy Osbrink, a talent agent who represents Dakota Fanning and other young talent, says she now tells her clients to accept paparazzi as part of their lives. “You smile and you just keep on walking,” she said she tells them.  But ambushes by shutterbugs — professional or the cellphone-toting type — are only part of the landscape for children who get maximum exposure through deals that may include not only performing on television shows, movies and albums but also lending their name to clothing lines and other merchandise.  Anne Henry, a founder of Biz Parentz, an advocacy group for parents and children in the entertainment industry, said that many parents worry about how the Internet facilitates the passing around of personal information. She said that she has dealt with complaints from parents about fans showing up at homes and schools, and of names and pictures appearing on pedophile sites.  When she Googles her own daughter, an 11-year-old who has had roles on television series and in movies, she has ended up in portals to pornographic sites, she said.  “The Internet and anonymity really allow the crazies to flourish,” she said.  Emily, whose brother is the Oscar-nominated actor Haley Joel Osment, the child star of “The Sixth Sense,” has had to deal with all of it to one degree or another.  She said she was dismayed to discover “hundreds” of blogs that purport to be written in her name, and she is not thrilled when fans take her picture on the street when she’s wearing her gym clothes.  For this year’s Emmy Awards, designers offered her dresses. (She had no time for daylong fittings so she went to a mall with her mother and bought an off-the-rack black number instead.) And she and her manager — her father, Michael Eugene Osment — are weighing whether to do an advertising campaign for a jeans company. “I don’t want her to be too sexy” in the ads, Mr. Osment said.  Emily had done guest appearances on shows like “Friends” and played Gerti Giggles in two of the “Spy Kids” movies, but none of it has brought her as much attention as the role of Lilly on “Hannah Montana.” Her association with Disney is proving golden (she is to start work this fall on a Disney television movie in which she stars) and she is fully aware of the benefits of fame at a young age. “Disney definitely sets up a fan base for you,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing.”  But her father said he works hard to keep his daughter grounded as she pursues her ambitions.  “We do our best to try to be an average American family,” he said of his kids and his wife, Theresa, a teacher. “When we come home from work we do everything from doing the dishes after dinner to cleaning up dog poop in the yard.”  Many young actors are embracing the limelight with gusto, some children’s television producers say, already calculating how to parlay their child performances into film careers, their own record labels and more, not just the cover of People.  “Kids before were focused on the moment,” said Dan Schneider, an executive producer and the creator of some of Nickelodeon’s most popular shows, like “Drake & Josh.”  “Now the kids and their parents are looking at their work with Nickelodeon as more as Step 1,” he said. “Most want to have movie careers, and the path has been paved.”  It is smoothed thanks to the remarkable stardom that children’s cable television has afforded. Last month “High School Musical 2” drew some of the largest ratings ever for a basic-cable television show, and its albums, along with those of “Hannah Montana,” are best sellers.  Nickelodeon, the other powerhouse in children’s programming, has been trying to keep up with Disney’s cross-pollination abilities by teaming up with Sony Music Label Group and starting to produce original movies as a staple of its programming.  In the recent past, “my kids only wanted to be on prime time,” said Bonnie Liedtke, a talent agent who was recently hired by the William Morris Agency to spot talent for the burgeoning tween market. “Not anymore.”  But now that these kids are expected to be earning machines from age 8 or 9, up through their 20s, how do you prevent them from crashing and burning, Lindsay Lohan-style?  Many parents, television executives and others who work with young performers see cases like hers (Ms. Lohan, 21, has been to rehab three times this year) as the exception, and more attributable to family dynamics than the entertainment industry. But it is a looming concern for parents even at an early stage.  “We’re paying attention to the media,” said Jayon Anthony, whose 14-year-old son, Leon G. Thomas III, recently signed an exclusive deal with Nickelodeon for music and television shows and movies. “We’ve had conversations with him.”  Leon, the singing voice of Tyrone, the orange moose, on the Nick Jr. animated series “The Backyardigans,” wants to be one of Nickelodeon’s music stars.  “I see myself with my own show,” said Leon, who began his acting career on Broadway at 10 as young Simba in “The Lion King.”  But Ms. Anthony is making sure her son doesn’t grow too fast. He still attends public school in Brooklyn and she makes sure he takes time from a hectic bicoastal schedule for childhood friends.  “This is not the end-all,” she said.  Mr. Osment is familiar with how a wholesome image can be tarnished. Last year, Haley Joel Osment faced misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence after he crashed his car, suffering a broken rib. Mr. Osment said that his son, now 19 and attending New York University, “did a foolish thing” by partying “a little bit too much” before going to college. But he said he wouldn’t call the incident a pitfall of being young and successful in the entertainment industry.  “My son’s incident was a pitfall of being 18,” he said.  As her father stays close, Emily Osment said she is not worried about veering off into any kind of scandalous behavior. She is in entertainment for her love of acting, nothing more, she said. And even though she must show up for signings, premieres and other “Lilly” obligations, she steals time for her “normal” social life with old friends.  This year, she’s missing homecoming, again, but “everything is really peachy right now,” she said.
Many teenage performers are trying to adjust to a new Hollywood, the one that caters to the tween and teenage market.