EXCLUSIVE: Parents are more concerned about their children’s use of social media and technology than drugs, alcohol and smoking, new research shows, with cyber-bullying their no.1 web-related worry.

Youth mental health experts say inaction by Facebook and Twitter has caused a national crisis. Top lawyers say the solution is to regulate social media and reform the law so those injured by online hate can sue.

“These platforms are like the Wild West,” Maurice Blackburn board member Josh Bornstein told News Corp Australia.

“Children can terrorise other children, people can set up accounts in your name or my name and then spew bile all over the internet, send out neo-Nazi or anti-Muslim hate or content in support of ISIS and encourage people to be attacked and the sites have been notoriously slow to act or failed to act at all over a number of years now,” Mr Bornstein said.

“As soon as Facebook has its first law suit from someone injured by cyber-bullying or cyber-hate that would have a massive impact.”

Youth mental health service ReachOut believes community safety is under threat due to the negligence of Facebook and others.

ReachOut CEO Jono Nicholas said the social media platforms’ technology had made it too easy for bullies to harass.

“This is a national crisis,” said. “It is a real issue for every parent raising a teenager now.” New research by ReachOut reveals more than 40 per cent of parents are either extremely worried or very worried about their children’s exposure to social media and technology, with cyber-bullying and harassment the top concern. Only 25 per cent hold similar fears about alcohol, drugs and smoking.

The results come from an Australia-wide survey of 890 parents with at least one child aged 12-18.

“Unless these online environments become safe — and, particularly, safe for kids — then I think one of two things will happen: people may not spend time on their platforms which will hurt their business or Australians will call on their legislators to do more,” Mr Nicholas said.

Maurice Blackburn’s Mr Bornstein, who last week appeared before a Senate inquiry to make the case for reform, said Germany brought in €50 million ($A79m) fines on January 1 if platforms failed to remove hateful content within 24 hours. He said in response Facebook hired 1200 German moderators.

“In Europe they are leading the charge about the regulation of big tech. In Australia there’s been barely a high-level discussion about these issues.”

A Facebook spokesman said it would work with ReachOut on addressing the concerns raised.

“We constantly listen to feedback from the community and child safety organisations and innovate to keep people safe by introducing new features and tools to help people have a positive experience on our platform,” the spokesman said.

He also pointed out Facebook had developed tools to help prevent harassment including its “safety centre, “bullying prevention hub and parents portal”.

A Twitter spokesman said it had “taken major systemic steps” to improve the platform.

“While updating our products, policies, and processes is critical, we understand that the long-term solution must include the collaboration of governments, civil society, and NGOs to address media literacy,” the spokesman said.

WHAT would you do if you were told your son or daughter’s supposed “friends” were using social media to urge the child to kill themselves?

This is the terrifying situation Rockhampton’s Katrina Collins found herself in two months ago when her 13-year-old daughter showed her screenshots from an app called Sarahah.

Mrs Collins decided to start a petition on Change.org, seeking to force Google and Apple to dump Sarahah from their stores.

“I was worried about my daughter and other people’s children,” Ms Collin said yesterday.

“On a whim I put the petition up.”

The response was extraordinary. The petition attracted 470,000 signatures. The trillion-dollar tech giants caved.

in the first place.

“An app such as Sarahah is used for such hatefulness and hurtfulness which completely goes against what Google and Apple say they stand for,” Mrs Collins said.

Asked to comment, Apple did not respond.

A Google Australia spokesman did not answer News Corp Australia’s questions. Instead he provided the same response it gave to the change.org petition: “While we don’t comment on specific apps, our Google Play policies are designed to provide a great experience for users. We always do our best to work closely with developers to ensure they’re in compliance with our policies.”

Mrs Collins praised the way her daughter responded to the situation; ditto her daughter’s school, Rockhampton Girls Grammar.

“My daughter has been a pillar of strength,” Ms Collin said. “And I don’t think we would have got as far as we have without my daughter’s school.”