Male teenagers mostly from Queensland recently created sex-rating pages called “root rater” Facebook groups. In relation to this, page users were affiliated through universities, geographical location or sexual preference.

Such pages which plagued the north-east part of the country, aimed to rate female locals on their sexual performance. Bundy-Root-Rater, which is currently offline, is the most famed among these sites in Queensland. A number of pages similar to it started popping up in Victoria.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, newspapers from Warwick, Mackay, Toowoomba and the Fraser Coast all detailed the prevalence of similar local sites among teenagers yesterday.

Facebook sites are subject to media attention these days as the press assumed that the sex rating pages that currently “unavailable” of “offline” were already arrested by Facebook.

Moreover, gay and lesbian community and those who regularly visit Fortitude Valley nightclubs, in Brisbane have also been targeted.

A digital law expert from Queensland University of Technology, Peter Black, warned posters on such groups risked breaching several laws.

“There's a misunderstanding that takes place, that the internet is a law-free zone because it moves and changes so frequently. But the law most certainly does apply,” Black said.

Black explained it is a federal offence to use a carriage service, such as Facebook or Twitter, to threat harass or cause any kind of offense to others.

“If the sites are in violation of Facebook's terms of service, the company can take action to shut down the sites and, if necessary, warn the users involved that their own sites might be terminated. The second issue would be questioning whether there is violation of civil liberty and the most likely would be defamation. The third issue is whether there have been any criminal laws broken,” he furthered.