Bangalore, Aug 9 - It is not TV cartoons or an energetic game of football that is keeping Bangalore's youth hooked - but blogging and social networking.

According to a survey by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest software exporters, youngsters in this tech hub top the chart in blogging and networking. And parents and teachers are a worried lot over the possible ill-effects of spending much time on this activity.

Students in the age group 12-18 in several cities across India have taken to blogging and social networking in a big way. But Bangalore's Gen-Z is way ahead - with 66 percent of those surveyed saying they are active on blogging and networking sites, in comparison to the national average of 39 percent.

The TCS survey, the first of its kind pan-India study on the subject, covered 14,000 students, mainly studying in English medium, in Kochi, Coimbatore, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Lucknow and Delhi.

But parental pressure has made a few cut down on the time they are logged on.

'I was a regular blogger, till a few months back. My blog was about teenage angst and aspirations. Due to pressure from both my parents and teachers in school to stay away from blogging, I am not posting new blogs these days. For me blogging is a powerful channel to express myself and I love doing it,' Ankit Gupta, a student of Class 10 of a reputed Bangalore school, told IANS.

He, however, resents elders restricting youngsters from networking on the web. The 14-year-old asserts that any kind of restriction on such 'creative and communication' skills of youngsters would be harmful for their growth.

'Blogging is a great creative medium. There is nothing harmful in blogging. But elders fail to understand the point and are unnecessarily putting restrictions on children and their mental growth,' rued Ankit.

Teachers are not impressed with such arguments.

Princess Franklyn, principal of Bishop Cotton Girls' School, Bangalore, told IANS that teenagers these days spend a good amount of time on the net and were neglecting their studies.

'Most of the children in the city are spending a huge amount of time either blogging or on social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut.