Worries over internet children and alcohol

Many of them are under 18 and yet the practice is "completely unregulated", they said.

The social networking site Bebo – which is popular with school-age children – has more than 19,000 groups dedicated to alcohol, said Tobias Paul, from the Scottish Youth Commission on Alcohol.

One group, which has 77,901 members, is called Lovers of WKD, the vodka-based alcopop.

Another group called Have you Got a WKD Side? – an official campaign run by the brand – says "let's get 5,000 fans!" and has 1,635 members.

An Official Smirnoff Homepage on Bebo has 388 members, including some who list their ages as 16 and many who do not list an age at all.

The WKD doesn't make you drunk..so stop pretending! group on Facebook has 10,120 members.

Research has found more than 13,000 WKD groups and pages on Facebook, including the official WKD homepage.

Mr Paul said the groups were mostly set up by users although research had shown it was often difficult to distinguish between user-generated content and official sites.

He told a conference on alcohol in central London, the rise of social networking sites had changed traditional methods of marketing and advertising.

Users were now "promoting alcohol, often to the extreme" which had a "really big influence" on youngsters, he said.

He said online marketing of alcohol in this way was not covered under any existing legal framework.

He said there were no controls on the age groups targeted. "There needs to be a serious look at this," he added.