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Facebook rape gangs are targeting vulnerable children at house parties where victims are chosen from a menu, according to a shocking new report.
The report from the Office of the Children's Commissioner said thousands of youngsters were being preyed on by organised gangs of men who surfed the internet to arrange meetings with each other and identify potential targets.
One unnamed girl said she was taken to houses from the age of 13 and raped by several men. She said they selected girls from a book showing their photographs and ages and in some cases filmed the attacks and shared them with other paedophiles on the internet.
The interim report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner showed 2,409 children were victims of sexual exploitation in England in the 14 months up to October 2011.
However, the Government told the BBC it questioned the methodology of the report, describing parts of it as 'hysterical'.
The report, titled 'I thought I was the only one - the only one in the world', sets out the findings from the first year of a two-year inquiry.
It is the first report to attempt to set out the scale of the sexual exploitation of children and young people and comes in the wake of the jailing in May of nine Asian men for grooming and sexually exploiting white girls as young as 13 in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
It draws on evidence from local authorities, police, health services, voluntary agencies and children and young people.
The deputy children's commissioner, Sue Berelowitz, said the evidence indicated the perpetrators 'come from all ethnic groups and so do their victims, contrary to what some may wish to believe'.
The inquiry highlighted two distinct forms of attack by predatory males.
It said street gangs of young men were linked by criminal backgrounds and used weapons and drugs to subdue victims.
But, in a sinister new development, it also identified groups which involved males aged anything from 14 to 70 who trawled Facebook and other sites to link up with each other and groom vulnerable children before taking them to parties to be raped.
Sue Berelowitz said: "There are menus of girls. Males select whether they want a 12-year-old girl, a 13-year-old girl and children are then transported to so-called parties where men will go and rape them and money will change hands.'
She added: "If the recent allegations against Jimmy Savile are true, a conspiracy of silence allowed him and those who acted with him to continue to rape children with impunity for decades.
"It is too easy to simply blame the BBC as if what happened was entirely due to a failure in one organisation."
The report said agencies like social services, the police and teachers should look out for signs that could identify a child as being sexually exploited. These include going missing from home or care, estrangement from their family, self harm and changes in appearance.
Child care expert Professor Jenny Pearce, of the University of Bedfordshire, helped compile the report and said: "Our interviews with children living in gang-affected neighbourhoods across England leave us shocked by the extreme levels of sexual violence that are assumed to be inevitable in the everyday lives of the children concerned."
A Facebook spokesman told the Mirror: "Unfortunately, these disgusting individuals exist in our society and, on rare occasions, on Facebook.
"However, no service has done more to seek them out, remove their content, and help bring them to justice than Facebook.
"We have a zero tolerance policy for child exploitative materials on the site and when such illegal behaviour is detected Facebook works with law enforcement agencies to ensure that these people are brought to justice."
The inquiry was set up by the Government last year and its full findings will be published by autumn next year.
ABUSED GIRL'S HARROWING STORY
According to the report, Teegan (not her real name), a 13-year-old white British girl was ferried to parties held at 'nice houses or mansions' across England by a Turkish man who had befriended her - then forced to have sex.
The report says: "Teegan would be raped by several men from a range of ethnicities who were paying to use her."
She also described a book passed round her abusers which contained photographs of girls and their ages.
"Teegan reported men paying those who were exploiting her up to £500 for an hour with her," the report continues.
"Groups of men could also request one girl to share between them over a night where the rape of the girl would be filmed. "
If Teegan refused to comply she would be beaten and her family threatened.
Following the abuse, she took several overdoses, was placed in secure accommodation and self-harmed on a daily basis.