Teenagers used to rebel by smoking, doing drugs and getting pregnant.

But modern 14-year-olds are eschewing these traditional forms of acting out - in favour of hacking computers from their bedrooms.

Figures from a study carried out by University College London suggest that more teens of this age have hacked a computer than have had sex or are regular smokers.

One in 20 teenagers in the Millennium Cohort Study, which follows children as they grow up and asks them questions about their lives, told researchers they had hacked a computer in the past year. Just under one per cent had sent a virus.

Two per cent of 14-year-olds of either gender said they had had sexual intercourse, with almost 11 per cent telling researchers they had had any type of intimate sexual contact.

Three per cent said they were regular smokers, and 14 per cent said they had smoked a cigarette at least once.

Other more old-fashioned illegal activities were also less common than cybercrime. Less than three per cent had done graffiti without permission and four per cent had been involved in vandalism. Around two per cent said they were part of a gang, and a similar number said they had ever been in one.