(Copyright Financial Times Ltd. 2007. All rights reserved.) Many parents of teenagers are used to berating their children for spending too much time on the internet, and for revealing too much about themselves on publicly available social networking sites such as MySpace.com.
Now, in a study released today, it is clear just how commonplace using social networking sites has become among teenagers, especially those over 14.
More than half (55 per cent) of American children aged between 12 and 17 use online social networking sites such as MySpace, research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found. MySpace and Facebook and numerous smaller alternatives allow people to create web pages and fill them with text, pictures and video and also exchangemessages with others in the network.
Among 12- and 13-year olds, 37 per cent say they have created online profiles, with 63 per cent of the 14- to 17-year olds having done that, the Pew study shows. Older girls are the biggest users of the sites, with 70 per cent of 15- to 17-year-old girls having created profiles.
"Girls tend to be more fervent users," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew, which interviewed 935 people for the study.
MySpace, which turned three years old this month and is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is by far the biggest social networking destination, reflected in its global tally of more than 145m members.
Of the teens surveyed, 48 per cent said they visited social networking websites daily or more often, with 22 per cent visiting several times a day.
Ms Lenhart said that focus groups found that the social networking sites were being used for instant messaging and e-mails.
The popularity of social networking sites has led to concerns among media and communications companies that they might be losing touch with young audiences.
In particular, social networking sites have become important for generating internet traffic, leading to speculation that a large internet portal or media group might try to buy Facebook, which remains in private hands.
The amount of time spent online has also raised questions among advertisers about how they should reach the prized youth audience if they are less engaged with other media activities such as watching television.
The survey found that for girls, social networking sites are primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; for boys, the networks also provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends.
My Research