If there’s no such thing as bad publicity then Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking site Facebook has certainly hit the high notes.
The list of complaints is growing by the hour as the site is inundated by gossip and hate pages as well as groups ranking the sexual performance of women.
Fake profiles of unsuspecting victims have been also been posted, at times with disastrous results.
In one example, a woman from Wodonga was approached on her doorstep by two men in search of sexual favours, based on phony Facebook conversations.
It appears the issue came to the fore on June 1 in Bendigo in Victoria, about two hours north-west of Melbourne.
A journalist from The Bendigo Advertiser was approached by a person distressed at being named and rated on their sexual performance on Facebook.
Click on the timeline to see how the issue unfolded.
Sinc e then, a flood of copycat “trash” pages have emerged with town gossip style groups growing in popularity.
One site backfired on a 13-year-old Ballarat school girl who was suspended after she and a friend published damaging and explicit comments about peers and teachers.
“It’s not worth it,” she told The Ballarat Courier during a public apology.
A 15-year-old girl in Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales was forced to take refuge at a friend’s house after she was threatened with violence for starting up a trash page.
The response from authorities has been varied with police threatening action against those doing the victimising if an official complaint is made.
A number of experts in cyber bullying have also been consulted including adolescent counsellors and former Victorian police officer Susan McLean.
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