CRIME VIDEOS STAY ONLINE FOR MONTHS
Experts blaming the social media giants
Violent videos of Australian children stealing cars, doing drugs and breaking into homes are not being removed from social media despite clearly breaching the platform’s guidelines and amplifying the nation’s youth crime epidemic.
Content shared by child gangs on social media, depicting a range of crimes, have remained online for more than a year, the Bulletin can reveal.
The Bulletin has sighted several examples including one TikTok video showing a young boy speeding with the police chasing them captioned “too slow” from March last year.
Another video on Instagram showed a break-and-enter from December 17, 2023. A third video from a Queensland account that was posted in September 2022 showed kids speeding at 260km/h through a tunnel. Some accounts also reposted the news covering their crimes with frustrated experts blaming the social media giants for the escalating youth violence epidemic.
A TikTok spokesman said videos brought to their attention had been removed or were in the process of being removed.
“We do not allow content that promotes criminal activities, and work closely with law enforcement agencies around Australia.”
Police sources warned they have witnessed an escalation of children filming themselves entering homes to steal keys, often filming victims in the house while they are asleep.
They added that regional youth gangs were trying to emulate serious criminal gangs in the city by trying to steal more expensive cars including BMWs and Audis.
Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman took a swipe at existing laws that do not compel technology companies to remove dangerous content — vowing their proposed new bill will give the eSafety Commissioner stronger powers to take the content down.
“Our bill allows the eSafety commissioner to demand that these videos are removed and if the tech platforms don’t remove those videos, they face fines of $156,000,” he said.
A Queensland mother is scared to live in her own home after juvenile offenders stole three of her luxury cars in just three years, boasting to social media as they drove at lethal speeds. Sera Shin, who lives in the crimeriddled city of Townsville, watched helplessly as masked thieves livestreamed her BMW being driven at more than 220km/h and set on fire in December.
It was the third car to be stolen from her home in three years, with Ms Shin
“The eSafety Commissioner does fantastic work and we want to give the commissioner very clear power to deal with this huge problem in our community.
“We can’t just rely on TikTok and Meta enforcing their own rules. For instance, there are many children who are not meant to be on the platforms at all under the social media company’s rules but who are. We saying they’d lost $200,000 worth of vehicles and were now contemplating moving to an apartment block or a different city to keep her family safe.
“No one can protect us, we can only protect our family,” Ms Shin said.
The most recent ordeal unfolded in broad daylight when two young thieves popped the lock on a door to her house and crept inside about 7am, coming face-to-face with her eight-year-old daughter.
The brazen thieves gestured for the terrified girl to be quiet, before grabbing the keys to Ms Shin’s BMW and fleeing.
definitely can’t rely on the platforms to do the right thing.”
A spokeswoman for eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant outlined the convoluted process required to take down criminal content under current laws.
“eSafety does not proactively monitor the internet for seriously harmful or illegal content. We rely on members of the public to report it,” she said.
“Under the Online Safety
Act 2021, material promoting, inciting or instructing in matters of crime and violence may be considered ‘class one’ material.
“The eSafety Commissioner may be able to require the removal of class one material.”
The spokesman said the Commissioner had to go through an individual assessment of each potential class one material before they can have it removed.