To guard against sexual predators or fraud, Internet security experts say, the first thing is to keep personal information off the Web. And personal information is the very first thing strangers see when they visit most home pages on MySpace, one of the fasting-growing sites on the Web.

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The social-networking site, launched two years ago, is a massive repository of information about American kids. That youths and their guardians feel so differently about it -- with teens flocking to the site, despite worries by adults -- signals yet another generation gap in the digital era.

Search MySpace for youths around Pittsburgh or just about any other town and you will find hundreds of personal Web pages listing teenagers by age, city, sexual orientation and high school. The pages, which MySpace requires to be publicly accessible for those 16 and older, include scores of photographs of high school students and their friends, from innocuous snapshots to provocative poses.

Kids often will list last names, birthdays, their after-school jobs, their school clubs and hobbies and other personal data. MySpace is so popular that many kids younger than 14, who are officially barred from the site, make up fake ages to participate.

Most use the site to simply stay in touch or flirt with their friends. But security experts, school officials and parents are increasingly worried that strangers will use the information they innocently post on MySpace to prey upon them.

"Every time we do a parent night, the first question is always about MySpace," said Kent Gates, who travels the country doing Internet safety seminars for iSafe America, a federally funded Web education group.

Almost 40 percent of American high school students have posted personal information such as names, e-mail addresses, age and gender on the Web, according to iSafe student surveys, and 12 percent have had face-to-face meetings with people they have met online.

Internet security and law enforcement officials say the personal data publicly available on MySpace and similar networking sites, matched with innocent attitudes by youths, make the sites ripe for information-digging sexual predators.

In September, a 37-year-old man used MySpace to exchange messages with a 16-year-old girl from Port Washington, N.Y., police told Business Week magazine, and sexually assaulted her outside her after-school job. She had listed where she worked on her MySpace profile.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has received at least 288 MySpace-related complaints, according to U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan in Pittsburgh.

"It's scary because predators go through those profiles, too. They look at kids they want to target and they begin instant-messaging them, and they put them on their buddy lists so they know when they go online," said Mr. Gates, the former campaign manager for Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey.

"Predators are using the Internet to get what they want as well."

Ms. Buchanan said MySpace was a "significant concern" for law enforcement. For pedophiles, she said, "MySpace creates a smorgasbord."

"Pedophiles can access MySpace.com and look for exactly what the pedophile is looking for. They can identify children by their geographical location, by their age, by their size and their sex. It significantly endangers children," Ms. Buchanan said.

MySpace officials did not respond to interview requests.

Using MySpace, users of all ages create home pages which usually include pictures and personal trivia, which users edit. Through the site, users can hear from current friends, search for old ones -- the pages are searchable by age and high school, among other categories -- or send messages to new people they meet online. It is free to join.

Strangers can read about and send messages to most MySpace members. MySpace bars users 16 and older from making their home pages private. Members can block people from reading their profiles, messaging them or adding them as friends, but most pages are open for public view.

MySpace, which launched primarily as a band-promotion site in January 2004, and similar social-networking sites have surged in popularity the past two years. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, MySpace was the third most-viewed Web page in the United States through November, after Yahoo! and eBay, with its audience growing 752 percent over the year.

Young people are driving the popularity of the sites, which include Friendster, Facebook and Xanga, and, thus, catching the corporate eye.

In July, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million with hopes of turning the free site into the major Web portal for young people, displacing Yahoo! or MSN. Murdoch announced plans Monday to let MySpace users upload and download video and make Internet phone calls, among other plans.

It's easy to see why the business is booming. For most teens, MySpace is not about Internet safety, page views or other adult concerns. It is the way to communicate with friends and is increasingly part of a daily computer ritual.

"Adults send out e-mails all the time with their friends and co-workers and it's less of a trend among kids. MySpace is like the new e-mail," said Evan Katz, 16, a junior at the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

MySpace has become something teenagers feel they must have. Since the site's home pages list the number of MySpace friends one has, it has become yet another way of judging high school popularity.

Abby Van Wassen, 16, a junior at Woodland Hills High, said she was weary of the egocentric side to the site, but uses it anyway.

"MySpace is an easy way to reach just about everyone. I know I don't have all the phone numbers of my acquaintances, but if I ever had to get in touch with one of them, I could leave them a comment or message," she said.

Most teens say they know to be wary of strangers online, but do not share the angst about posting personal information. Growing up today means living with the fact that there are going to be pictures of you and other personal data on the Web for all to see.

"Well, in this day and age, I don't think it is so much of a worry," said Ethan, the CAPA junior. "It's a community and everyone posts pictures and puts their age up, etc. It's kind of like a rite of passage to have MySpace."