A BOY of 13 has admitted raping his eight-year-old sister after watching porn on an Xbox. The Blackburn teenager told police he had seen X-rated material on a games console with a friend and “decided to try it out” and had chosen his sister because she was small and “couldn’t remember stuff”.

Blackburn MP Jack Straw has put the responsibility on internet service providers to ensure children can not access sexually-explicit content.

I couldn’t agree more, but I’d add that parents — as difficult as it is to police teenagers — MUST share that responsibility.

Having seen some horrific images in the public domain on Facebook recently, I believe there’s a new tide of evil flowing freely through social media channels that neither providers nor parents can contain. And it affects us all, not just children.

Faceboook used to be a fun way of making friends and keeping up with established ones. For a journalist — and other professions — it’s an essential tool of the trade. But in the last year I’ve seen horrific postings which have kept me awake at night.

It started with images of dogs being brutalised. One video — that I couldn’t watch — showed a girl throwing puppies into a river. The written description of the video left you in no doubt of its content.

Then there was a “Wanted” poster featuring a beautiful blonde-haired little girl who had apparently been “snatched by an Asian gang for the purposes of grooming”. Chilling as it was, I knew it to be racist propaganda, but the number of times it was “shared” indicated that it had convinced many.

This week I saw a video freeze-frame so horrific that I can’t stop thinking about it. It featured a grainy video still — I couldn’t watch the clip — of a woman swinging a screaming baby around by its ankle. The original poster declared that this woman “needs to be stopped”. When I switched through to his FB page he was requesting videos the “world ought to see”.

A debate by mums ensued. Some had seen even worse cases of abuse and were feeling assaulted in their own homes. Others were making the decision to “unfriend” anyone who shared the video nasties, even though their reason for doing so may be honourable. Many believe that by “sharing” they are helping to locate the abusers. But I believe that anyone fearless enough to be videoed committing such horrendous crimes won’t be caught easily.

One teacher said she was well aware that child abuse went on, but she didn’t want constant visual reminders of it.

I suggested that before unfriending friends, the video posters should be reported to Facebook moderators. If we all bombard them with complaints, it may stem this tide of evil. If it doesn’t, a boycott of Facebook is the only answer’.