Teen's pictures stolen for site

Ariella Goldfinch felt violated. Photo / Vision Media

A teenager whose private photos have been used without permission to attract bisexual women to a website feels violated and scared.

Ariella Goldfinch, 18, was disgusted and shocked her photos had been ripped off Facebook and used on Tagged, a social-networking site aimed at meeting people for sexual relationships.

The person who used a selection of Goldfinch's photos claimed to be a girl named Jessica. Her profile, which was created in October, had 106 friends and displayed images of females hugging each other in lingerie.

It said she liked horse riding, snowboarding, modelling, and was interested in hearing from females only.

"I like hunky boys, gorgeous girls. I love cars, modelling and sleeping in," the profile said. "I wanna be a nurse (yeah, the sexy kind) and I wanna find my perfect partner, preferably a girl."

Goldfinch, of Palmerston North, said she was only alerted to the profile last week after a friend found it during a random Google search.

"I feel violated," said Goldfinch, who graduated from high school this week. "I don't want people to think that is actually me."

She said it was not her first "creepy" encounter online. Throughout the year a man has repeatedly tried to find out information about her.

Goldfinch contacted police who advised her to contact the website directly, she said.

The Tagged profile was removed but she said it was difficult to report the stalker to Facebook.

Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker said all images placed on the internet were at risk of being used elsewhere. There were no tools to monitor where images were used.

"It's all about having good privacy settings. But even then, Facebook is in a public space so there is always going to be leakage."