The privacy commissioners of Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Canada have launched an international privacy competition to target young people.

Australian Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis said secondary school students were the main users of social networking websites and they appeared to give away a large amount of personal information via the medium.

"We are keen to understand whether or not privacy is something students consider in their daily activities and to encourage them to start thinking about the information that they disclose and the impact that this may have on their lives,'' Ms Curtis said.

St George police school liaison officer Peter Northey said many young people didn't take privacy seriously.

"A lot of school kids have a Facebook, MySpace or Bebo social networking profile and when they sign up their profiles are automatically for public viewing for anyone in the world to access,'' Senior Constable Northey said.

"They put a lot of very personal information on there like their full name, address, phone number and lots of pictures of themselves and their friends.''

"I found a profile of one local student who had so much information on there that it would make it very easy for someone to steal his identity and open up a bank account or get a credit card in his name.''

Ben Weetman, 18, of Engadine said privacy on the internet wasn't his most biggest concern.

"Although the internet may affect my privacy it is also a good way of meeting new people, so it's a risk I am willing to take,'' he said.

As part of the competition, students are invited to create a video about any aspect of privacy.

The competition closes on July 25 and the winners will be announced during Privacy Awareness Week in August.

Details: www.privacyawarenessweek.org