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They paper their virtual walls with kittens and cartoon characters, give their address as Candyland, their age as 103 and announce they are yearning for true love.

Welcome to the secret, yet very public, world of young teens who are flocking to social-networking Internet sites both to chill with friends and to figure out the timeless adolescent question “Who am I?”

Although originally aimed at 20-somethings interested in independent music, websites such as MySpace.com, which is owned by News Corp. have attracted an enormous following among middle school students, and cultural theorists say it's not hard to see why. As the real world is perceived as more dangerous with child abductors lurking on every corner, kids flock online to hang out with friends, express their hopes and dreams, and bare their souls with often painful honesty-mostly unknown to their tech-clumsy parents. “We have a complete culture of fear,” said Danah Boyd, 28, a Ph D student and social media researcher at the University of California Berkeley. “Kids really have no place where they are not under constant surveillance.”

Driven to and from school, chaperoned at parties and often lacking public transport, today's middle-class American kids are no longer free to hang out unsupervised at the park, the bowling alley or to bike around the neighborhood they way they did 20 years ago. “A lot of that coming-of-age stuff in public is gone. So kids are creating social spaces within all this controlled space,” said Boyd.

The ranks of Santa Monica, California-based MySpace.com has swollen to more than 73 mn members in two years, making it the second-biggest Web domain after Yahoo in terms of page views. Other popular teen sites are Friendster.com, Tagged.com, Xanga.com, and Orkut.com. Most MySpace members live in the US, but a British version was launched this year, and Australia will be next. More than half of 15- to 20-year-olds are online are using MySpace, according to the company's research. They use the site's design technology to create personal 'spaces' that resemble a cross between a high school locker and a secret diary.

Researchers say older teens and 20-somethings use the site more for friendship, sharing music, arranging meetings, and parties. The younger set use it to chill with known friends and work out their own identity. Some construct fantasy lives of vast wages, luxury cars and say they are searching for 'live-in pimps.' Others confess touchingly to being geeks, loving uncool movies such as 'The Sound of Music' or list their puppy as their lover.

“Building identity is a lot of what a teen-ager is. The majority feel they don't fit in,” said networking consultant Ross Dawson, chairman of Future Exploration Network.

“This is the first generation for which it is entirely natural to socialize in a digital environment. Mobile phones, instant messaging, texting, and being online really are their life support,” Dawson said.

Reuters

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