MySpace.com, the fast-growing community website hugely popular with American teens, has removed 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its site as it steps up efforts to calm parent and teacher fears about the safety of the social network for young internet users.

The site, which allows users to create their own profiles with details oftheir interests that can be viewed and linked toby other MySpace.com "friends", was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp last year and its phenomenal growth has placed it at the centre of the media company's internet strategy.