Different sites, including Facebook and Snapchat, have been used to make negative and derogatory comments about others as well as incidents of blatant bullying and distribution of photos by young people.

A police spokesperson said of particular concern was the online bully and degradation people who were, or are, in domestic relationships and are dealing with the difficulties of separation and even working through Family Law Court issues.

ALSO MAKING NEWS:

"These incidents will not be tolerated and police will take all available action against those who think it's alright to plaster disgraceful comments or photos of someone on social media," the spokesperson said.

"The other area of major concern is young people posting photos of each other on sites like Snapchat or sexting and sending inappropriate photos to each other. There have been incidents where photos have been used against other people to try and ridicule them as well as bad cases of bullying."

Police would like to remind those using these sites that there are many offences relating to the posting of photos of other people to be used as a form of revenge, particularly if the person is naked or in stages of undress.

Posting intimate images of a person without their consent is an offence, and so is taking an intimate photo of someone without consent, distributing an intimate photo without consent and threatening to distribute an intimate photo without consent.

Posting an intimate photo of a person under the age of eighteen, either by the person themselves or others regardless of consent is also a serious offence. Penalties range from fines of up to $1100 and/or imprisonment for up to three years or on the upper end of the scale the consequences are very serious.

Police ask people to be considerate about each other when commenting or posting on social media and to think twice before posting derogatory comments or intimate photos.