Women are more likely than men to delete friends from their online social networks and tend to choose more restrictive privacy settings, according to a new study.
The study by the Pew Research Centre's internet and American Life Project also found that men were nearly twice as likely as women to have posted content online that they later regret.
Sixty-three per cent of social network users have deleted people from their friend lists, according to the study, up from 56 per cent in 2009.
Sixty-seven per cent of women who maintain a social networking profile said they have deleted friends compared with 58 per cent of men.
When it comes to privacy, 58 per cent of social network users set their profile to private so that only friends can see it.
Nineteen per cent allow friends of friends to view their profile and 20 per cent keep their profile public.
Women are significantly more likely than men - by a 67 per cent to 48 per cent margin - to set their profile to private, the study said.
However those surveyed were evenly divided on the ease of privacy controls.
Forty-eight per cent said they have some difficulty with privacy controls while 49 per cent said they did not experience any difficulty.
The study found that men are nearly twice as likely as women to have posted updates, comments, photos or videos that they later regret.
Eleven per cent of social network users say they have posted content they regret with 15 per cent of men saying they have done so and just eight per cent of women.
Ninety-three per cent of social network users surveyed said they have a profile on Facebook, up from 73 per cent in 2009.
The popularity of rival Myspace continues to wane, the study found. Twenty-three per cent of social network users said they have a Myspace profile, down from 48 per cent in 2009.
While just six per cent of social network users said they had a presence on Twitter in 2009, 11 per cent are now using the short-messaging service.
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