ABUSE and bullying on the internet is making life hell for one girl in Nottingham.

The 14-year-old has been repeatedly cyberbullied through abusive messages posted to her via Facebook.

Her mother, who does not want to identify herself or her daughter, has contacted police and Facebook.

Officers have warned the children involved in the bullying and have also spoken to parents.

But the 47-year-old mother believes Facebook should do more.

She said: "Facebook were contacted to suspend accounts of those involved but they failed to take any action for two weeks.

"Throughout that time the abuse continued and got worse and worse before their accounts were suspended."

Some of the vicious messages were posted on a photograph of the girl and a 21-year-old family friend, alleging the pair had sex.

The friend, a nursery worker, who also wants to remain anonymous, was suspended by his managers.

Notification of the message was sent to the 21-year-old's friends and colleagues and proper procedures had to be followed in light of the allegations.

He was eventually reinstated after the situation was explained.

"My daughter is scared to go to school, she's not eating, she's not sleeping, she's very upset and the abuse continues," her mother said.

"I think there should be a separate Facebook for children which is monitored better.

"And if reports are made about abusive conduct then they should be taken off immediately and action taken.

"I reported the messages on a Friday and was contacted back by Facebook on the Sunday for more information, it was two weeks before Facebook disabled the main bully's account."

Other parents in Notts also want better internet safeguarding.

A Facebook group with nearly 300 members is appealing to get parents to take their children off Facebook.

It was set up by Darren Brown from Mansfield and is among other similar groups.

Mother-of-two Sarah Madigan, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, has joined.

She said: "I feel strongly about this, parents should be limiting their children's access to the computer.

"I let my children use websites but I sit with them and know what they are doing. I also block pop ups and do not let them use Facebook or similar sites."

A spokesperson for Facebook said: "Any action that is considered abusive or threatening towards an individual will not be tolerated on Facebook and we will disable accounts that are found to be intimidating others in this way.

"All reports made through the report function are taken very seriously and therefore investigated fully, in this case we have disabled the account of the perpetrator."

In the case of the nursery worker and the 14-year-old girl, Notts Police have issued harassment warnings to some of the teenagers who posted abuse.

Chief Inspector Wes McDonald said of cyberbullying: "From the victim's point of view we are very sympathetic to the impact that this may have upon them, and we will do what we can to take action against those responsible, and where an offence has been committed, we will look to engage with website companies and take the necessary and proportionate action.

"It can be a challenge to identify individuals when gathering the evidence from the internet but we will always encourage the victim to complain directly to website managers to cause such messages to be removed."

Harassment warnings are a "low level or proportionate" response to an issue which is at an early stage.

Further action can be taken if an issue continues.

michael.greenwell@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk