Young girls in Grimsby area victims of sick online photos and videos dubbed 'paedo paradise'

DO YOU know what your child is doing online?

This is the question the Grimsby Telegraph is asking parents today as we launch our Stay Safe Online campaign, aimed at protecting young people in an age when the internet exposes them to new dangers every day.

The campaign is being launched after readers reported finding shocking photos and videos of young girls from North East Lincolnshire on social networking sites.

The material, which has been viewed and “liked” by thousands of people, included:

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A Facebook group called “slag alert gy” set up locally encouraging users to send in pictures of girls from Grimsby in suggestive positions or clothing, branding them “slags” and exposing them to a torrent of online abuse.

A YouTube video called “sluts” showing three teenage girls – two believed to be Tollbar Academy students aged between the ages of 14 and 16 – licking their lips and thrusting their hips.

The Facebook page, which has since been deleted, featured more than 100 photographs, mostly of girls in their underwear or topless.

Some images were lifted straight from the girls’ personal Facebook pages and others are believed to have been sent in by ex-boyfriends – without permission.

It is understood that a number of the girls have either previously studied at, or are currently studying at, Franklin College and The Grimsby Institute.

The group had 6,556 “likes” – a button users of the website can click to show their appreciation for something – despite posts on the wall that many of the girls looked under 16, with one user describing it as a “paedo paradise” and the administrators as “sick”.

It is believed that four different versions of the site – each one launched after the previous one closed – were launched before it was finally shut down for good.

The YouTube video went on to trend on Twitter with the tag “#slutdrop” and got more than 1,000 views before it was taken down. The girls are believed to have suffered cyber-bullying as a result.

It comes in the midst of the biggest child safety scandal in recent history – the alleged abuse by BBC presenter Jimmy Savile – and, as such, the Telegraph has launched this campaign in association with Humberside Police and North East Lincolnshire Council to protect young people.

Steve Kay, head of young people’s support services for North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “I have four children myself and while the internet has unlocked some groundbreaking opportunities for young people, it also presents some very clear and present dangers.

“Parents need to be aware of these dangers but we also need to work together to look at early intervention, educating young people so that we are preventing serious problems rather than reacting to them.”

Although the Grimsby Telegraph has copies of images from the video, we have taken the decision not to print them.

See today’s Grimsby Telegraph for extensive advice from professionals working with the police, schools and social media, on how to Stay Safe Online.