Australia's prime minister said Friday he would consider appointing an online ombudsman to investigate complaints about Internet bullying after a string of incidents on social network sites.
Twenty high school students were suspended Friday for bullying a staff member on Facebook in the latest example of abuse. Education Queensland said in a statement Friday it was working with Facebook to take down the page against the staff member. It gave no further details.
On Thursday, a Grade 12 student at a Brisbane Catholic school was suspended after creating a page that offered to return a missing boy if the group attracted 1 million members. Queensland boy Daniel Morcombe was abducted in 2003 at age 13. That page has been removed from Facebook.
Earlier this month, two Facebook tribute pages set up for slain Queensland state children were defaced with pornography and offensive comments.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would study the idea of appointing an online ombudsman to deal with such incidents.
"The role of cyber crime and Internet bullying on children is frankly frightening and we need to be deploying all practical measures," Rudd said.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said she had written to Facebook to express her concern over the online vandalism.
