Police probe inappropriate online pages

Creators of offensive social media pages which target young women from the Greater Bunbury area by posting sexually explicit photographs may be convicted of a sex offence if police find the women are under 18.

One page aimed at publicly shaming Bunbury women by posting photographs and allegations of lewd behaviour attracted more than 2200 users in five hours before it was shut down on Sunday.

The Facebook page sparked comments of disgust and pleas from the families of the women, most less than 20 years old, for the administrator to remove the content.

But another online page, which yesterday had about 2400 users, had replaced the closed page, giving people another outlet to post personal attacks on South West women anonymously.

WA Police told the Times it was investigating several incidences of child exploitation material being posted on social media.

“Detectives constantly liaise with Facebook staff to identify those responsible for posting images,” a police spokeswoman said.

“Police are attempting to ascertain the identity of the people in the photos as well as determine their ages.”

Under WA’s laws the penalty for those who distribute child exploitation material is up to 10 years imprisonment.

Those convicted are put on the Sex Offenders Register.

Police also encouraged those who had been the target of the web pages to report the issue.

“If you are under 18 and a sexually explicit image of you is posted on this or any social media site, report the matter to police,” the spokeswoman said.

Forrest MHR Nola Marino worked on the Parliamentary inquiry into cyber safety and said the pages were obscene and repulsive.

“It is unfortunate that teenagers will almost certainly be exposed to these pages, which have been seen in various forms for years in Bunbury now,”she said.

Mrs Marino said new laws were needed to improve the take down protocols of large social media outlets so harmful content was removed more quickly.

Cyber safety tips can be found on the WA Police website under Your Safety www.police.wa.gov.au.

The 10 year jail penalty applies to juveniles and adults.