Over the last decade, an increasing number of teenagers have become prominent users of the Internet (Becker 44-5; La Ferle, Edwards and Lee 55), thus generating concerns among parents and researchers with regard to its effects on their psychological well-being. In one of the studies, 40 to over 65 percent of the 1,000 parents surveyed assert their worries about their children's isolation from others in the real world and their development of antisocial behavior due to Internet use (Turow).
Due to their vulnerability to adult predators, teenage girls and their use of the Internet have also captured the attention of the public. A recent research study entitled "How Children Use Media Technology" conducted by Statistical Research Inc. (SRI) indicated that girls aged between 8 and 17 used the Internet more frequently than their male counterparts. Compared to boys who used the Internet 2.0 days per weeks, the girls used it for 2.7 days per week. Furthermore, more of the teenage girls (59 percent) in the study used the Internet for communication-oriented activities such as e-mailing and instant messaging than the boys (39 percent). Rather, more of the boys (37 percent) preferred to play games on the internet than the girls (24 percent) ("Girls Spend More Time on the Internet than Boys Do" 6). These statistics thus suggested that teen girls had higher exposure to Internet and unknown Internet users than boys, which could affect their psychological well-being.
In the remainder of this paper, the relationship between female teenagers' use of the Internet and the effects on their self-image will be examined in the following way. To begin with, the possible influence of the role of the Internet on the psycho-social development of teenagers will be considered. Both the positive and negative effects of the Internet on the development of the self-image of the teenagers will be identified. Research studies that offered insight into f...