Students and graduates signed up to community websites such as Facebook and MySpace have been urged to be more cautious with their personal details.

Get Safe Online has revealed one in four post confidential or personal information on their online profile. Details ranging from phone numbers and dates of birth to postal and email addresses are potentially being shared with millions of internet users. It claims they are making themselves vulnerable to damaging identity fraud.

The report at Get Safe Online's annual safety summit in London did show 88 percent of internet users have some form of security software, but one in four were posting personal information on pages that may be available to more people than they expect.

Tony Neate, managing director of Get Safe Online advises: “The popularity of social networking and other sites means that we are much more open about ourselves and our lives online. Although some of these details may seem harmless, they actually provide rich pickings for criminals. Your date of birth and where you live is enough for someone to set up a credit card in your name. So whilst most people wouldn’t give this information to a stranger in real life, they will happily post it online where people they don’t know can see it.”

The research also found 13 percent of social networkers have posted information or photos of other people online without their consent. This trend is strongest amongst younger users, especially students and graduates, with 27 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds admitting that they have posted information and photos of other people without their consent online.

The Get Safe Online campaign is now in its third year. It is the UK’s national internet security awareness campaign. A joint initiative between the Government, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and private sector sponsors from the worlds of technology, retail and finance, the campaign continues to educate, inform and raise awareness of internet security issues.

For more information about the campaign, visit www.getsafeonline.org.