Rudd eyes online ombudsman

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he will look into the idea of appointing an online ombudsman after Facebook tribute pages were defaced with pornography.

Pages set up to honour murdered Queensland children Trinity Bates and Elliott Fletcher have been defaced in the past fortnight.

Illegal material, such as child pornography and bestiality, was posted on the sites, as well as comments about the alleged killers and how the killings took place.

A Year 12 student from Queensland's Marist College at Ashgrove has also been suspended for setting up a Facebook page saying it will hand over Daniel Morcombe, who has been missing for several years, if the page attracts one million members. Police had been monitoring the site, saying the administrator could face charges of misuse of a telecommunications carriage service.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon has proposed the appointment of an online ombudsman to deal with such incidents.

"Specifically on Nick's idea, let's look at it," Rudd told the Seven Network on Friday.

"We actually need to do everything we can to combat cyber crime.

"The role of cyber crime and internet bullying on children is frankly frightening and we need to be deploying all practical measures.

"If I was a mum or a dad out there today with little kids, given some of the awful events we've seen in recent days, I'd be legitimately concerned.

"So there's some more stuff to do here."

The issue had already attracted attention from Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who reportedly wrote a letter to Facebook chief exeucitve Mark Zuckerberg, appealing for help in blocking offensive material.

Conroy had also questioned Facebook's security practices last week.