IN the social networks of American teens, personalities are distilled into profiles and names have become a sign-on. A survey shows 55% of all online American youths between 12 and 17 uses social networking sites, with girls outnumbering boys.

Girls log on to reinforce pre-existing friendships, while boys use the networks to flirt and make new friends, research released on Jan 7 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found.

A social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. Such sites like MySpace and Facebook allow people to create web pages and fill them with text, pictures and video and also exchange messages with others in the network. In the past five years, such sites have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users.

A quick check on MySpace showed that there are more than 100,000 registered Singapore users, with more than four-fifth in their 20s and below.

Among 12- and 13-year olds surveyed, 37 per cent say they have created online profiles, with 63 per cent of the 14- to 17-year olds having done that. Older girls are the biggest users of the sites, with 70 per cent of 15- to 17-year-old girls having created profiles compared to 54% for boys in the same age group.

"Girls tend to be more fervent users," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew, who polled 935 people for the study.

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.

Teens say social networking sites help them manage their friendships. Almost all social networking teens say they use the sites to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82% use the sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person. Older boys who use social networking sites are more than twice as likely as older girls to say they use the sites to flirt; 29% report this compared with just 13% of older girls.

MySpace tops list of social networking sites

MySpace touts itself as a place for friends, but it has become the place to make, sustain and renew friendships among American teens.

Fully 85% of American teens have created an online profile said they use MySpace, while 7% use Facebook. Third place goes to Xanga. Other sites mentioned include Yahoo and Piczo.

MySpace, which turned three years old this month and which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for US$580 million is by far the biggest social networking destination, reflected in its global tally of more than 145m members.

A clear indication of its popularity in Singapore was when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his National Day rally speech that the US Marine Corps had put an ad on MySpace and wondered aloud if the Ministry of Defence and even the People's Action Party, should do the same to reach the young.

The explosive growth in the popularity of these sites has generated concerns among some parents, school officials, and government leaders about the potential risks posed to young people when personal information is made available in such a public setting.

'This is the world we're moving into," Dr Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and scholar of media and popular culture, said during his visit to Singapore last week.

"Parents can help their kids benefit from the online interaction not by watching over their children?s shoulders to see what they are doing, but by watching their backs," he said.

Thankfully, 66% of teens who have created online profile say that their profile is not visible to all internet users.

"There is a widespread notion that every American teenager is using social networks, and that they're plastering personal information over their profiles for anyone and everyone to read," added Ms Lenhart. "These findings add nuance to that story - not every teenager is using a social networking website, and of those that do, more than half of them have in some way restricted access to their profile."