Facebook victims are flooding police with complaints

Scores of pages set up to bully teenagers

Teens are bombarding police with complaints about being bullied on Facebook. Heartless bullies have set up scores of pages on the social networking site which make sick references about youngsters’ looks.

In some cases those targeted are accused of being paedophiles, drug addicts and prostitutes. The vile rumours are often featured alongside the victim’s photograph and a link to their Facebook profile, alerting family and friends.

Charities have accused police and Facebook of turning a blind eye to the problem. One organisation even said it has evidence of victims taking their own lives as a result.

Liz Watson, of BeatBullying, said: “These pages are becoming more prevalent.

“We are aware of people who have self-harmed and committed suicide because of these things.

“Around 44% of teen suicides are caused by bullying. We want legislation to be stronger so people know there are consequences to their actions.”

Often abusive Facebook pages are set up for specific towns and cities. But when victims and their families ask for photos to be removed, some of which are sexually explicit, they are taunted or ignored.

Earlier this month a page entitled “Dumfries Dirtys” was taken down after police were flooded with complaints. It had gone viral within days of its launch.

Similar pages have been set up for Edinburgh, Dundee, Dunfermline, Hamilton and Lockerbie.

In one case death threats were made against the mystery person behind it.

Another page on Facebook called “Scottish Belters” even featured victims’ mobile phone numbers.

It also made a serious criminal allegation against one person and asked people to post details of his address on the page.

One young woman said she had contacted the police about disgusting allegations made against her.

However, as recently as last week, her photo and the derogatory comments could still be seen.

Shockingly, another woman claims that pictures of her sons, aged two and four, were put up on a cyberbullying page.

Claude Knights, of charity Kidscape, warned abusive pages on Facebook are becoming more widespread and “increasingly created by younger age groups”.

She said: “Bullies are freed from having to witness the pain suffered by their victims and make comments that would be very difficult to deliver face-to-face.

“For the victims it can be a 24-hour torment with nasty, untrue rumours read by a huge audience, tainting every aspect of their lives.

“It is also difficult to have photos and comments removed from social networking sites, making them almost indelible.

“Social networking sites have ‘report abuse’ buttons, and malicious, threatening comments can be reported to the police, but the process of redress can take a long time.

“The perpetrators of online crimes need to be dealt with very severely and need to understand that their actions can lead to severe consequences.”

Internet trolls are people who use the web to launch anonymous attacks on people. Often they bombard them with insults, provocations or threats. The issue is so serious it has been raised in Parliament.

Social networking sites are supposed to be for over-13s only but research shows around 60% of 12-year-olds have a profile.

Reg Bailey, chief executive of the Mothers’ Union, said: “There’s a risk that children under 13 could be targeted.

“I would like to see social networks report back about how many complaints they are getting and how quickly they are taking these things down.”

Last year more than 1,300 reports of threatening or abusive behaviour on Facebook and Twitter were logged by Scots police.

In England and Wales officers dealt with 14,000 cases of abuse on Facebook alone.

This compares to only a handful of cases across the UK five years ago. A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “These matters will be looked into and any appropriate police action will be taken.”

Facebook removed Dumfries Ditrys and Scottish Belters after The Sunday Post contacted it. A spokeswoman for Facebook said: “Facebook is highly self-regulating, and people can and do report content that they find questionable. We have clear rules to make sure the content and opinions our users create or share doesn’t go completely unchecked. We take our rules very seriously, and act quickly when they are broken.”