What's a "smut list"?

If you've never heard of one, you're not to blame. If your name has never appeared on one, be grateful. A "smut list" is a loosely disguised list of a different name: substitute an L for the M, and you'll get the idea.

Recently a Facebook group by that name surfaced, and its "Smut List" has been circulating around at least seven school districts in Greenwich, Conn., and New York's Westchester County.

The list's purpose? To rank about 100 teenage high school girls based on their level of sexual activity, whether real or just rumored. While it initially started as a list that was circulated via Blackberry Messenger, the list quickly made headlines when it was posted on Facebook on March 15.

The page, entitled "Westchester SMUT List" quickly received over 7,000 fans in 24 hours and essentially embarrassed -- and possibly tarnished the reputations of -- all of the young girls mentioned, including some as young as 14.

Over the past year, cyberbullying, in its myriad forms, has become one of the biggest issues affecting America's teens, notably leading at least one, Tyler Clementi, to take his own life last year. When you add in the abilities of social networking to be used for evil ends, it can propel rumors at an alarming rate.

These teen girls are certainly feeling the heat of being viral victims.

Linnese Ortega, a graduate from White Plains High School, and a teen mom with two kids, found her name on the list even though she isn't even in high school anymore.

"I scrolled down and my name is there," she told the 'Today' show. "They were saying ... 'Oh, Linnese girl, how many baby daddies do you got?' or something like that."

What made it worse was that 20-year-old Ortega also found her 16-year-old sister on the list. "I'm not really sure what would be the right punishment, but I hope they get the worst, because there's a lot of girls who are going through it right now, and they're still in school," Ortega said.

Facbeook has since taken down the group page, and school administrators and the local police have been working together to investigate who is behind the list and whether school computers were used to create or send it.

"If it turns out there's any criminal charges that have to be lodged, we'll take of it," police rep Lt. Kraig Gray told AOL News. "The goal is to allow the school to handle it internally."

But the question remains: Why shouldn't this be criminal? When you anonymously defame a young girl in the name of fun, you deserve more than an after-school detention. And until the young perpetrators get more than a slap on the wrist, they'll continue to conjure up new social networking schemes that leave innocent victims with scars that last far longer than it takes to remove a Facebook page.

Which leads us to wonder why the school is calling this incident "a distraction" and referring girls implicated by the list to counselors, as opposed to legal counsel?

If laws aren't already on the books, maybe we need to create them, in time to prevent the next "smut list" from rearing its ugly head in cyberspace.

Hear Linnese Ortega Make Her Case on the 'Today' show below: