Teenager whose home address was shared on social media by trolls says life has been 'ruined'

Schools and police raise concerns about the safety of streaming app Live.me

Victoria from Leeds was targeted by online trolls (BBC )

An 18-year-old girl has spoken out about her experience of the trolling which “ruined her life”.

Victoria, who chose to withhold her last name, told the BBC online bullies on Twitter and the Live.me streaming app told her to kill herself.

The trolls also superimposed her face on pornographic messages which were shared on social media.

“I used to be an outgoing person and now I’m just trying to get back to my old self,” Victoria said.

"I'm on anxiety tablets now. It's knocked my confidence. I don't even go out of the house that much."

Figures obtained by BBC Yorkshire show reports of malicious communication — the law which prohibits the sending of offensive messages — have almost doubled to more than 200 a day.

There were 79,372 offences recorded in 2016, up from 42,910 the year before.

Live.me is a live streaming app that allows users to share video instantly.

It also shares a user’s location and allows others on the site to search for others streaming near them.

The app is one of the fastest growing of its type worldwide and unlike with websites such as Facebook, users have little control over who views their posts.

In August, a paedophile who encouraged a nine-year-old girl to expose herself over the live stream was jailed for four years, in the first case involving a crime committed on Live.Me.

In July, Northamptonshire Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team wrote to every school in the county to warn parents to be vigilant when letting their children use the app.

In the letter circulated to schools, Detective Sergeant Nickie Deeks said: "We have been made aware of an out of force investigation where a young child has been directed by a suspect to engage in sexual activity and this stream has been viewed more than 15,000 times."