Run by the national Aids Action Council and aimed primarily at the gay and lesbian community, ''The Drama Down Under'' is a service that allows internet users to send anonymous and free text messages and e-postcards to their sexual partners notifying them that they may have been exposed to an STD.

However, the site which required no identification or contact details to be left by the user left the door open for misuse and as a tool for bullying and harassment, Australian Medical Association ethics and legal committee chairman Peter Ford said.

''I think the service would be wide open to extraordinary levels of abuse,'' he said. ''It would have potentially far more significant downsides than upside. Already we hear of disturbing levels of bullying and harassment between young people and it is difficult to envisage that this sort of tool would be used responsibly in the main.''

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times