Three Adelaide High School students have been suspended for sending abusive messages to a feminist writer and joking about violence against women.

Clementine Ford put her views online after about 400 women and girls from South Australia had their intimate photographs posted on a website without permission.

Ms Ford posted a photo of herself on Facebook with a message against TV show Sunrise, accusing it of blaming the victims for what happened.

There is a growing problem of "revenge porn" being posted on the internet, sometimes by former partners after a couple breaks up.

Ms Ford said the trend was disturbing.

"It's not about sex, it's about power," she said.

"This isn't about seeing someone nude, it's about seeing someone nude when you know that they haven't consented, having the added thrill of knowing that they're humiliated."

Ms Ford's Facebook post in defence of women provoked threats and abuse against her and she re-posted some of those comments, including messages from three boys from Adelaide High.

When the school found out, the boys were suspended and principal Anita Zocchi published a letter on the school website in which she said the students comments were "abhorrent".

She said the school had been inundated with emails telling it what the boys had done and they were now remorseful.

"They are quite distressed," Ms Zocchi said.

"I have to add they have a very good record in the school and they understand the huge error of their ways."

Ms Ford said she was impressed with the school's handling of the matter.

"It worries me that there is a continuing groundswell of entitlement that young men are feeling over women and particularly over women's bodies, that they can say whatever they want and threaten and harass," she said.

Ford calls on Facebook to take issue more seriously

She said people seemed spurred on by the sense of anonymity they thought social media gave them.

"This is why part of my activism is about dispelling these myths of the basement-dwelling monster - most of these people are normal," she said.

Ms Ford was banned from Facebook for reposting some of the abuse she received, but the site did not ban the men who made the comments initially.

She said the company needs to change.

"I would like to see companies like Facebook start to take these issues a lot more seriously," she said.

"In its early days Twitter had similar problems with online abuse of women and I feel they have demonstrated that they are really willing to come to the table on this.

"I don't feel like Facebook is there yet or has demonstrated that they're interested in moving towards that."

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