Concern over web targeting

A Craigavon mother was made aware by her daughter of a person using social networking site Facebook to ask girls as young as 12 to send him naked pictures of themselves.

She explained: “He’d started sending messages to my daughter who’s 12. She came to me straight away.

“I looked at his profile and he had 30 friends. I knew 28 of them.

“He was clearly targeting young girls at Lismore and Brownlow.

“When they got a friend request from him all the mutual friends would show up so they’d think they knew him.”

The concerned mum continued: “I spoke to some of the other girls he was friends with and asked if he’d sent them any inappropriate messages. They sent me the messages he’d sent them. I was near sick reading them.

“He has been asking them to send naked pics of themselves and what he has been saying to them is not worth repeating. He is grooming our young girls.”

The Craigavon woman took the messages to the police and subsequently managed to get his profile taken down from Facebook.

She added: “The important thing is girls go to their parents if they are contacted by someone they don’t know in this manner.”

Lismore Principal Fiona Kane said pupils were persistently reminded about online safety and the message was being reiterated given recent events.

She said: “We’ve spoken to pupils and contacted all parents reminded them of the improtance of staying safe online. We’re encouraging parents to use parental controls on websites like Facebook so strangers can’t view profiles.

“Form teachers are reinforcing the message to pupils about being safe online.”

Meanwhile, the ‘MAIL’ is aware of another Facebook page, masquerading as a site about Lurgan, which is stocked mostly with revealing images of women.

One Facebook user, who unwittingly visited the page, said: “I was added to a Facebook page about Lurgan, it had old views on its leader page, I accepted the invitation and when I looked at the photographs, very few were about the town, most were of busty women. So be careful always check such invites, perverts are everywhere.”