A new report has shown that teenagers are actively embracing social networking sites and other interactive online media.

The research, carried out by Pew international, showed that 64 per cent of online teenagers aged between 12 and 17 have created some form of content on the internet in recent months.

According to the research, teenage girls are more likely to maintain a blog than their male equivalents and are also more likely to post photos on sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Flickr.

Boys are generally more likely to post videos on websites like YouTube.

"Content is created for an audience," commented Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist and one of the authors of the report. "For teens, the beauty of the internet, particularly social networking websites, is that content can be created and easily shared among a network of friends.

"Even more compelling is that people in those social networks can easily comment and give feedback on shared content."

A staggering 41 per cent of the young people who use sites like Facebook and MySpace said that they sent messages to friends via those sites every day.