Facebook has become one of the biggest influences on the lives of girls, according to a survey.

A study of eight to 15-year-olds for National Family Week found 40% of girls identified Facebook as one of the most important things in their lives - compared with 6% of boys.

Parents were found to underestimate the significance of technology.

The role of social networking was particularly important in families with a single mother as parent.

The survey, carried out last month and based on 3,000 parents and 1,000 children across the UK, looked at the perceptions of children and parents of family life.

Girls saw websites such as Facebook as much more influential than television, magazines, celebrities and even their own brothers and sisters.

Asked to name the three most important things in their lives, the most popular choices for girls were friends, family and then Facebook and MSN.

For boys, family was much more of a popular choice - chosen by 73% of boys, compared with 53% of girls. For their other choices, boys identified money and friends as their next most important things.

Social networking was a much lower priority for boys - only 6% selecting it in their top three things in their lives, compared with 40% of girls.

The survey also looked at how children viewed their relationships with their parents.

It found that both boys and girls would much rather have stories read to them by their mother - but that girls felt closer to their fathers, while boys felt closer to their mothers.

By: By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education correspondent

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