A CATHOLIC school student has been "dealt with" after he set up a Facebook page that appeared to advocate killing prostitutes.

The page, called "Killing your hooker so you don't have to pay her", has now been removed by Facebook but not before almost 18,000 people joined the site.

The principal of St Laurence's College in Queensland, Ian McDonald, confirmed a student from the school had been disciplined over the creation of the page.

"It has been sorted out and the boy has been dealt with," Mr McDonald said.

"The student told us, of course, he didn't believe what was on there and he did something stupid.

"This didn't happen at the school, but does highlight the fact that we really need to educate the students about the dangers on the internet."

Mr McDonald said students did not have access to Facebook at the school.

Elena Jeffreys, president of the Australian Sex Workers Association, was one of dozens of people to complain to Facebook.

She condemned the site for inciting violence against prostitutes.

"It's a sad indictment of how people just think it's normal that the sex industry and violence goes hand in hand," she told.

"It's pretty disgraceful there's a web page advocating violence or murder."

The 18,000 members of the Facebook group included a handful of people claiming to be sex workers who had joined the group while it was still live in order to voice their disapproval.

"As a hooker, I wish I could find this site funny," one person posted.

"It's about as funny as black people being hung from trees, Jewish people burning in ovens and kids being raped.

"Not funny in this society!"

Other pages that appear to advocate violence against prostitutes are currently live on Facebook.

Many of them are linked to the computer game Grand Theft Auto, in which players can run over prostitutes in cars.

Another page called "Killing hookers and doing coke off their ass" says in its description: "Come here for all your hooker killing, and or eating of their diseased internal organs."

The group, which at the time of writing had 79 members, featured a photo of a woodchipper that claimed to "mince up hookers or your money back guarantee".

Ms Jeffreys said she did not blame Facebook, but urged people to think twice before creating such pages.

Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.