On social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter young people have been urged to commit suicide, issued with death threats, stalked and threatened with gang violence.

Others have had their identities stolen or been groomed by paedophiles.

Despite their secret struggles, many young people feel they have nowhere to turn. In our mad rush for the next innovation, gadget and gizmo we have neglected to build sufficient barriers to protect them from harm.

Freeing up worldwide communication lines has mostly been a force for good. But we have embraced our newfound freedom without recognising the ugly side of openness – and many of our young people are suffering for that mistake.

Sherry Adhami from the Beat Bullying campaign says social networking sites have become breeding grounds for bullying and harassment.

“In the past bullying would start offline and then go online,” she says.

“Now we are seeing the bullying start online and then continue in the real world, which is worrying.

“We need measures to be put in place to protect our most vulnerable people.”

At present there is no joined up solution to the problem, no catch-all safety net – and too many children are slipping through.

Harassment They think they have nowhere to go when they are targeted by internet “trolls”.

Young people need to be educated about online dangers and where to turn, but in a way that engages them. It is no use preaching to them at school assemblies or through syllabuses. The Government needs to invest in outside help from charities like Beat Bullying that work with schools to talk to kids in their language about possible pitfalls online.

Cyber bullies

Chris Thomson, head teacher at BHASVIC in Brighton, has banned his students from using Facebook recreationally on school computers.

Cyber bullies have been caught at the college in the past but Mr Thomson thinks tackling the problem permanently will be a difficult task.

“We have had incidents of cyber bullying to deal with. This is up there with sexual health and drug abuse on our list of priorities.

"The line we would generally take is that if it’s happening between two students at the school then it’s our business and we will take appropriate disciplinary action. But if one of the students is not part of the college then it becomes a little more difficult.

“We would counsel and advise the BHASVIC student and would try to do everything we reasonably can to help. But if the student gets into trouble and then doesn’t come forward to tell someone then there is a real problem there.”

Concerned mother Sarah from Brighton has a 13-year-old daughter who has repeatedly suffered at the hands of bullies. She has banned her child from Facebook and her solution to the problem of cyber-bullying is to keep children off social networking sites completely.

“On the internet people lose all inhibitions about what they are saying,” she says.

“They feel free to unleash the devil within themselves. They can say the most horrible things and I don’t think my daughter needs to deal with that.

“Most kids on Facebook experience harassment at one time or other because it’s much more difficult to say something horrible to someone face to face.

“I’d rather my daughter learned social skills than make ‘friends’ with people who could turn on her at any minute.”

Monitoring

Ultimately the buck stops at the internet companies who play host to the abuse. It is their responsibility to invest to protect their users and yes, much has been done.

They have opened the floodgates of communication but are accused of standing back as the weak and the vulnerable are exposed to online threats.

The only solution is investment.

The sites need to hire new staff to monitor reports of abuse and ban bullies and harassers.

Terms and conditions are important but if they are not properly enforced then they become worthless.

An automated message is no good to a terrified 12-year-old child on the end of a death threat.

There are no proper filters on social networking sites so 13-year-old children are exposed to the same material as adults.

More effective filters need to be developed to stop abusive content before it can be seen.

And it can take weeks for offensive pictures of children to be removed after the initial complaint is made. These take down times are simply not acceptable.

This is not an easy fix. Millions of videos and comments are uploaded every day.

But if we do not tackle this problem quickly it will soon escalate beyond our control.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) has a page and application on Facebook www.facebook. com/clickceop to help young users deal with harassment.

Visit www.cybermentors.org.uk for more help.

To find out how to improve the privacy of your Facebook profile see The Argus's guide www.theargus.co.uk/li/facebookprivacy/ Have you been a victim of cyber bullies? Email Bill.Gardner@theargus.co.uk or call 01273 544 536.