The European Commission found that only two social networking websites make profiles of young users private by default. In the course of the test of 14 social networks it was found that only Bebo and MySpace have default settings to make minors' profiles more private. The test was meant to check if the sites were complying with the E.U.'s Safer Social Networking Principles, a self-regulatory agreement that they signed up to in 2009.

"I am disappointed that most social networking sites are failing to ensure that minors' profiles are accessible only to their approved contacts by default. I will be urging them to make a clear commitment to remedy this in a revised version of the self-regulatory framework. Youngsters do not fully understand the consequences of disclosing too much of their personal lives online," said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Carried out between December 2010 and January 2011 the Commission’s tests investigated into such websites as Arto, Bebo, Facebook, Giovani, Hyves, Myspace, Nasza-klaza, Netlog, One, Rate, VZnet, Galleria, Tuenti and Zap. All tests were performed in the appropriate language used by each of the website.

According to the recent stats 77% of 13-16 year olds and 38% of 9-12 year olds are using social networking websites. Nearly 65% of 13-16 years olds and 34% of 11-12 years olds know how to change the privacy settings on a social networking profiles, according to the EU Kids Online study, published in January.

Tagging pictures allows anyone to search for someone’s photo on the social networking website. The report shows that 10 of the sites allowed strangers to contact children via personal messages or comments to their profiles, which increases the risks of online grooming or cyber-bullying.

In the case of Facebook, researchers found that although the reporting mechanisms for inappropriate content or behavior are easy to use, Facebook does not react expeditiously to user reports and that when signed in to Facebook as minor, some of the adverts displayed on the profile could be considered inappropriate.