Ofcom, the “independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries,” released a 63-page report today on social networking sites. I’m reading it right now, and so far, it looks to be a great mirror to research being conducted at Pew Internet on social networking sites, especially research on young people’s use of the sites.

Here are some of the big stats the report reveals:

• 49% of children 8-17 have an online profile
• 22% of 16+ have an online profile
• On average adults have profiles on 1.6 sites
• 63% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Bebo
• 37% of 8 to 17-year-olds with profile use MySpace
• 18% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Facebook
• 59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends
• 16% of parents do not know if their child’s profile is visible to all
• 33% of parents say they set no rules for their children’s use of social networks
• 43% of children say their parents set no rules for use of social networks

Check out a .pdf of the whole report here.

Check out some of Pew’s recent reports related to this topic here and here.