Youth commissioner Paris Brown breaks down after apologising for her tweets Picture: Jim Bennett

Under-fire Kent police youth commissioner Paris Brown is coming under mounting pressure to resign today as Ann Barnes admitted checks should have been made into her use of social media.

Two county MPs have added to calls for the 17-year-old to stand down as the fallout from her offensive tweets continued.

Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins urged Miss Brown to step down and for Mrs Barnes to scrap the post of youth commissioner in the wake of the continuing row.

South Thanet MP Laura Sandys said on Twitter she "totally agrees". She added: "Gimmicks always backfire #morepolicinglessParis.

Mrs Barnes today admitted Miss Brown's Twitter and Facebook accounts had not been checked ahead of her £15,000-a-year appointment.

She added that while Paris, from Sheerness, had gone through a rigorous recruitment process, there had been no attempt to examine her "private" social media activity.

Mrs Barnes admitted that, in hindsight, checks could have been made and would be likely to be part of future recruitment processes.

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The 67-year-old said that if she had been aware of the offensive tweets - in which the teen made explicit comments about sex, drugs and violence - she would have had "a serious conversation" with her.

However, in a series of hastily-arranged interviews Mrs Barnes (pictured right with Miss Brown yesterday) also defended her decision to stand by Miss Brown - and said she hoped the 17-year-old would not resign.

She said Miss Brown had shown "immense bravery" in facing the media to apologise for her actions, while many adults caught in a similar situation would have "hidden behind a press release".

The youngster wept yesterday after apologising to the nation's media for causing offence and insisted she did not "intent to make anyone upset".

Mrs Barnes today added she believed Miss Brown was also the victim of double standards as other people in public life, including MPs and journalists, had apologised and been forgiven for misdemeanours.

She also sought to defend the youngster as a "typical teenager".

Mrs Barnes said: "She's a typical teenager - they have their own language, they have their own style. It's a different world to the one that we inhabit.

"I don't condone her tweets. I was very angry, and very cross. But I cannot wreck a young person's life for stupid, avoidable tweets she made when she was in her middle teens.

"We do have to move on. She has actually admitted exactly what she's done. It's all about the person - she was just being stupid.

"She's distraught, she's upset, she's apologised and put some context around it and asked to be given another chance and I'd like to do that."

Despite Mrs Barnes' backing, the row surrounding Miss Brown's tweets showed no signs of dying down today.

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said Mrs Barnes "clearly had questions to answer" over the appointment and that "something had gone badly wrong".

Mr Shapps said voters "may wish to take this into account" when the police commissioner post comes up for re-election.

paris brown should step down as youth crime tsar for kent. the role should never have been created, nor a 17 year old put through this.

— damiancollins (@damiancollins) april 8, 2013

And Damian Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe, today criticised Mrs Barnes for putting Miss Brown in the public glare.

Mr Collins (pictured right) said: "Even though these comments were written before she was appointed, few people would doubt that had she been 27, instead of 17, then she would have lost her job.

"It's right that we expect higher standards from people with more experience in life, and those holding public office, but Paris Brown should not have been put in this position in the first place.

"When someone takes on the role of being Britain's first paid youth police commissioner there will inevitably a lot of scrutiny of what they do and say; that is rightly a consequence of being in public life.

"I don't believe it was fair of the police commissioner to put a 17-year-old through this process unless she was absolutely certain what that scrutiny would reveal.

"Paris Brown should be allowed to carry on her young life away from this
glare of bad publicity and Ann Barnes should draw a line under it by
withdrawing the post of youth police commissioner.

"Instead of having one paid youth commissioner, I'm sure that there are many young people and organisations who work with them, who would be happy to offer their advice on a voluntary basis."

But Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson mounted a staunch

defence of the beleaguered 17-year-old, saying she should be left alone to get on with the job of being the county's youth crime commissioner.

Mr Henderson said: "To be honest, we ought to be leaving this girl alone. Why people like Keith Vaz [chairman of the Home Affairs select committee] feel they have to comment on the issue is beyond me.

"This is a girl who made a few unfortunate comments on Twitter a number of years ago and has been vilified for what she has said.

Kent youth police commissioner Paris Brown with Ann Barnes

"We are in a pretty sad state if we are going to vilify someone for saying something that is pretty uncontroversial. It is a dangerous slope to state censorship and I am a great believer in free speech."

Miss Brown found herself at the centre of a storm of outrage on Sunday when her offensive online posts emerged.

She she issued an apology after some of her expletive-laden messages about her sex life, drugs and alcohol became public.

In one message on Twitter just three weeks ago, Miss Brown (pictured right) wrote: "I want to f****** cut everyone around me."

Another message posted on the personal account, which has since been deleted, suggested she had been drinking while at work.

It read: "Been drinking since half 1 and riding baby walkers down the hall at work oh my god i have the best job ever haha!!"

Another post read: "Im either really fun, friendly and inclusive when Im drunk or Im an anti social, racist, sexist, embarrassing a*******. often its the later."

Miss Brown also described immigrants as "illegals", travellers as "pikeys" and male actors in the reality show Made In Chelsea as "fags".

"im either really fun, friendly and inclusive when im drunk or im an anti social, racist, sexist, embarrassing a*******. often its the later..." – paris brown

Other posts are said to have referred to her cravings for sex and cakes laced with marijuana.

Fighting back tears, Miss Brown said: "I'm really deeply, sincerely apologetic if anyone has been offended by what I wrote. It was not intended to hurt anyone, offend anyone or make anyone upset and I really am sorry if anyone's taken it that way.

"I'd completely forgotten about them. But reading them back now I can understand where people are coming from."

She added: "I am not homophobic, racist or violent and am against the taking of drugs. If I’m guilty of anything it’s showing off and wildly exaggerating on Twitter and I am very ashamed of myself."

But Keith Vaz, chairman of the influential Commons Home Affairs Select committee, called for Miss Brown to be sacked. He said he was "deeply shocked" and that she should be removed from her post "immediately".

Paris Brown is at the centre of a storm over offensive tweets

Miss Brown was unveiled as Britain’s first teenage crime tsar to represent young people's views on policing at a ceremony in Maidstone on Wednesday.

She is due to take up her taxpayer-funded post in August. Her role will last for a year and pays a salary of £15,000 - including £5,000 from the commissioner's £85,000 pay.

Miss Brown was chosen for the youth adviser role from 164 hopefuls who applied for the position and was interviewed by Mrs Barnes and a senior Kent Police officer.

Mrs Barnes defended Miss Brown after the Twitter revelations in a press conference at her Maidstone office on Sunday.

She said in a statement: "I absolutely do not condone the content and language of Paris' tweets. I suspect that many young people go through a phase during which they make silly, often offensive comments and show off on Facebook and Twitter.

"I think that if everyone's future was determined by what they wrote on social networking sites between the ages of 14 and 16 we’d live in a very odd world. I also suspect that thousands of parents would be at best surprised and at worst deeply shocked and ashamed if they looked into the social networking of their children."

She said while many might say Paris has "been through a phase" she will continue to support the teenager after being impressed by her maturity in interviews and by the way she has articulated her ideas.

"This is a very difficult time for her personally, but she will learn quickly from this and rapidly mature into the confident young person we are already seeing," Mrs Barnes added.

But Andrew Bowles - the leader of Swale Council, where Miss Brown works and a member of the Kent and Medway Crime panel, which has the job of holding the commissioner to account - said: "These comments by Paris Brown were certainly ill-advised but probably not totally out of character with what young people might be expected to say on social media.

"It disappoints me but I am not surprised. I do think this shows the inadequacies of a simplistic approach of appointing one person to speak for all young people in a county as large as Kent. A more considered approach would have been to have a representative group."

He added that all appointments made by the commissioner should have to be ratified by the Kent and Medway Crime panel, composed of elected councillors and independent representatives.

"The business of any appointment by the commissioner would be more transparent if they had to be ratified by the crime panel before they become effective."

Conservative candidate for police commissioner Craig Mackinlay

Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative candidate in the Kent commissioner election last November, said the appointment of a youth commissioner was a gimmick and that Paris Brown should stand aside.

Mr Mackinlay said: "It was always a gimmick from Day One. If you have a youth commissioner, where does it stop? A commissioner for the elderly? A commissioner for the gay community? If this [person] is going to be the role model for youth in Kent, then heaven help us. Her comments are totally unacceptable and I think the pressure on her to resign will grow."

He added: "There are plenty of youth forums to get views from - the Kent Youth Parliament, for example - without the need to appoint someone to this role."

Mrs Barnes defended the new youth commissioner post saying it is not a "gimmick" and that she believes it is a practical step to bridge the gap between young people and police.

Miss Brown was educated at the Isle of Sheppey Academy and works for Swale Borough Council as an apprentice within the commissioning and open spaces department. She said she chose to put on hold her plans to do A-levels to take up the commissioner post.

She has also been involved in creating a skate park in Sittingbourne.

Ahead of her official appointment last week, Miss Brown said: "I'm really excited and I can't wait to start. I'm really pleased that I have been offered this opportunity and I'm looking forward to getting out there to work with young people as soon as I can."