Alex Boston, 14, and her parents decided to take the legal action after the youngster's school and the police said they were powerless to help.

Miss Boston claims the classmates created a fake Facebook account in her name which included a photograph of her which had been distorted.

They also allege that the account was used to post a racist video on YouTube - which suggested that Miss Boston disliked African-Americans - and was used to leave comments on Facebook pages of her friends which suggested she smoked marijuana and was sexually active.

...She complained to teachers at Palmer Middle School in Kennesaw, Georgia, but was told they were powerless to help because the alleged bullying took place outside of the school.

Police officers also told the teenager and her parents that they could not intervene because there was no cyber-bullying law in Georgia which applied to this case.

Instead, officers advised the concerned family to send a complaint to Facebook and request that the fake account was removed from its site.

However, several requests to Facebook failed and so the family instead decided to sue those they claimed were behind the site.