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Growing number of teenaged girls and women are chasing the idea of 'perfect looks,' thanks to the media portrayal of the 'beautiful' women.

A recent study has revealed that girls who spend more time on social networking sites like Facebok, Twitter and MySpace are more likely to be unhappy with their looks.

Apparently, updating statuses, chatting and surfing the internet frequently drives girls towards low self-esteem and possessing a negative body image of themselves.

For the study, researchers surveyed more than 1,000 girls aged between 12 and 16 as part of the The NetGirls Project.

The study results revealed that 40 percent of the girls thought that they did not possess good bodies and that they were worried they will put on weight.

96 percent of girls surveyed had access to internet connection at home and of these, 72 percent reported uploading their pictures on the internet.

The girls spent about 3.5 hours on an average on the networking sites.

A separate study conducted in 2009 revealed that teens suffering from instability were mostly compulsive users of internet.

"We set out to investigate the role of media in adolescent girls' self image. We were interested to find out how adolescent girls were spending their free time and how different activities related to how they felt about themselves and their bodies. Our findings demonstrate a worrying correlation between excessive media use, particularly social media and the internet, and lower self-esteem, body-esteem and sense of identity and higher depression," said Dr Amy Slater from the School of Psychology at Flinders University,Australia.

There have been various studies previously which have linked media portrayal of 'perfect bodies' and 'good-looks' with poor self esteem or body-image in people.

According to a news release, the present study will also be presenting an analysis of 600 advertisements in social media directed at young girls.

"A content analysis of adverts found on sites that appeal to adolescent girls showed likely exposure to those reinforcing the importance of beauty and thinness," Dr Slater explains.

The study will be presented at the Appearance Matters 5 conference in Bristol on Tuesday 3 July.