They are a fast-growing teen phenomenon, with millions of children spending hours each week building webpages about themselves, chatting to friends and sharing photos.

Yet while these so-called ‘social networking sites’ may appear harmless, during the course of our research we found numerous examples of pornography, bullying, unsuitable advertising and discussions on anything from favourite alcoholic drinks to hard drugs. Perhaps most disturbingly of all, there’s no way of telling whether the ‘teenagers’ inhabiting these sites are really the fun-loving 15-year olds they claim to be, or adults with sinister intent masquerading as teenagers. Do you really know who your children are talking to?

The vast majority of the profiles we came across were perfectly innocent examples of teenagers being teenagers.

But, like in everyday life, teens need to be careful not to reveal too much about themselves in case of online predators; and be aware that whatever they post is potentially readable by teachers, parents and employers.

BULLIES’ PLAYGROUND?

Despite the freedom of expression these sites encourage, they’re a ripe environment for ‘cyber bullying’. We came across several unprintable instances of abuse, one of the most unsavoury examples of which was a poll running on one teenage boy’s website asking his friends to vote on whether a girl they knew had AIDS.

The internet can magnify the humiliation of bullying, according to John Carr, technology adviser for children’s charity NCH.

This type of harassment happens with a ‘small minority’ of Bebo members, according to chief executive and founder Michael Birch. Indeed, the teenagers we spoke to had no experience of online abuse, with one 16-year-old claiming that ‘normal bullying is a much bigger problem’. Teenagers can also block or remove comments left on their profiles and report bullying to the site or their teachers.

Nevertheless, as Birch admitted: ‘If you put a communication platform out there people will use it to do the same things as they do in the real world.’

UNDER AGE?

Yet while it may be possible to track down playground bullies who take their vengeance online, social

networking sites have little means of verifying whether their members are as young as they claim.

‘There’s not yet a reliable means of authenticating people’s true identity on the internet,’ said Carr. ‘All the social networking sites have the right advice and guidance and it’s difficult to know where else they can go.’

Although all major social networking sites have links to safety tips on every page and members can choose to let only

trusted friends view their profiles or send them messages, it’s easy for people to ignore the warnings and lie about their ages, or set up ‘alternative’ profiles that their parents won’t see.

MySpace now only allows over 18s to view and add under-16s to their ‘friend’ lists if they know their full name

or email address, but you need only look up profiles of people aged 99 on the site to see how many people have

circumvented the system by simply lying about their ages. We set up an account as a 14-year-old without any problem.

Bebo is slightly smarter at  identifying schoolchildren; members are categorised by their school and children must receive an invite from a fellow pupil before they’re allowed to join a school. That said, if an adult did manage to

circumvent the system, they would have picture profiles of hundreds of pupils from that school and know exactly where to find them.

In response to such fears MySpace and Bebo have employed ‘security and child safety officers’ who trawl the sites for illegal or inappropriate content or improper interaction between people of certain age groups.

NO PHOTO CHECKS

Bebo and MySpace don’t monitor photographs before they’re posted on to the sites, so children may come across pornographic profiles that haven’t yet been discovered and removed, as we did within minutes when logged on to Bebo and MySpace as a 14-year-old.

MySpace removed one pornographic site within a couple of hours while two of the profiles we reported on Bebo were still online nearly a day later. Bebo promises to remove offensive profiles within 24 hours of them being reported and told us that it was implementing technology that proactively examines photos for disproportionate flesh tones.

Most teenagers we spoke to learnt how to ignore distasteful sites or block unwanted communication.

They felt safe if people they chatted to were friends of friends.

REVEALING SECRETS

Teenagers may think these sites are harmless fun, but they need to consider how other people will interpret the

information they’ve posted about themselves. Claims of cannabis taking may impress friends, for example, but they’re unlikely to help with university applications or potential employers.

Parents may be shocked to discover that illicit teenage activity such as underage drinking and sex is out in the open for anyone to read. Most profiles we came across are innocuous and in jest, but listing interests such as ‘getting drunk’, posting photos of alleged graffiti and drug exploits or making derogatory comments about others

their profile.

‘Suddenly, parents are seeing this is happening and there’s this kneejerk reaction to blame Bebo,’ said Birch. ‘But we have nothing to do with it. Seeing what children are doing could help parents learn more about the realities of childhood. We recommend parents sit down with their child if they’re concerned and ask to see their profile.’

Most sites will allow bad language as it’s part of teenage life, so choosing what content to remove when it was

reported by other members is often debatable. ‘What is OK and what isn’t is very subjective, such as in the context of swearing.’ said Birch.

Disturbingly, we had to alert Bebo when we found third-party ads provided by Google on its site, which

led to inappropriate websites. Typing ‘sex education’ into Bebo’s search box using our fake 14-year-old’s account brought up adverts linking to sites offering ‘amateur webcam girls’ and ‘sex toys’. Bebo said that ‘shouldn’t have been happening’ as its agreementwith Google was only to display ‘family-friendly’ content.

Yet it took Bebo nearly a week to rectify the situation.

TIME FOR REGULATION?

Is it time the social networking sites were made more accountable? The government-run Child Exploitation

and Online Protection Centre (www.ceop.gov.uk), has run forums with industry, parents and

young people to discuss how to make social networking sites ‘safer by design’. ‘Where young people go

online, so will paedophiles,’ said a CEOP spokeswoman.

Bebo wants the Government to establish ‘sensible and practical’

measures, it told us.

Yet, no matter how many technical fixes the sites establish, it seems the bestway to protect children from the dangers of social networking is through parental involvement. Carr said that ‘social networks are very creative and no one wants to discourage that’, but they didn’t have the worldly wisdom of their parents.

By Kim Gilmour