THE father of murdered teenager Jimmy Mizen has welcomed plans to crack down on prisoners who post "uncontrollable bile" on the internet to taunt their victims.

Justice secretary Jack Straw has announced plans for a new law banning prisoners from possessing mobile phones without authorisation, and restricting released prisoners' access to sites such as Facebook.

The news comes after News Shopper reported that parents of the murdered teenager had demanded a ban on convicted killers taunting their victims’ families online.

Speaking after the announcement, Jimmy's father Barry said: "Some of the messages left on Facebook are just pure uncontrollable bile.

"It's very encouraging that the government has shown a willingness to act.

"Technology changes week by week and no sooner have you found a solution, someone else has found a way around it. But that doesn't mean we should do nothing."

Jimmy, aged 16, of Dallinger Road, Lee, was murdered at a bakery by 19-year-old Jake Fahri, of Milborough Crescent, on May 10, 2008.

A Twitter account was set up last year in Fahri’s name with the words: “Jimmy Mizen is a pathetic loser.”

And only last month the family of Ben Kinsella spoke of their outrage at taunts posted on Facebook by his killer, Jade Braithwaite.

The murderer, who is serving a life sentence, wrote that he was "down but not out" and posted a mock-up photo of himself wearing a T-shirt which said "Free Jade Braithwaite".

Mr Straw confirmed thirty prisoners' Facebook pages have been taken down because they were being used to taunt victims.

He said: "Like everyone I am deeply concerned about the distress which the abuse of social networking sites causes to families who have lost a loved one through murder as well as for other crime victims.

"The abuse of social networking sites by prisoners is offensive to public morality and decency – updating these sites from within prison is an offence under prison rules and using them to abuse victims is deplorable."

Meanwhile a spokesman for Facebook said: "Our rules ban users from harassment or intimidation.

"They also prohibit the creation of fake profiles and sharing profile access details with other people and we will remove accounts that violate these policies.

"We take their safety very seriously. All our users are encouraged to report any abuses or breaches of our rules."

Visit petitions.number10.gov.uk/E-ASBO to sign a petition calling for tougher action on offending prisoners.