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The research, conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research, reveals that teenagers are now constantly connected, staying up into the early hours of the morning on social networking sites.

However, the institute claims that they are being put at risk by a lack of parental knowledge concerning their activities online, with 40% of eight to 11-year-olds

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and 71% of 12 to 15-year-olds saying they browse the web on their own. Contact with pornography was reported by 57%.

The report also issues a stark warning for parents who believe their children are protected by net nanny software, with one 14-year-old claiming: "We have restrictions at school but we can just get an administrator's account and take them off."

Among its proposals the IPPR wants Ofcom to take on an extended remit which will include making recommendations to the government about where there is a need for action, such as tackling violent user-generated content.

It also wants sites such as MySpace, Bebo and YouTube to develop what it terms cross-industry guidelines laying out what children should expect, and how they should behave online. It also wants these sites to become funding members of the Internet Watch Foundation.

At the time of writing the concerned parties were not available for comment.