Mean girls: Huge spike in female school fights blamed on social media

The reality of the modern-day playground has been laid bare by new crime figures which show girls are now almost as likely to be involved in brutal fights at school as boys.

Exclusive: A 12-year-old left traumatised after watching girls stomp on the head of another student. A teenage girl terrified to go to school in case she’s stabbed.

This is the reality of the modern-day playground, where girls are now just as likely to be involved in brutal fights as the boys.

It is a trend experts have blamed on kids being inundated with violent images on social media during Covid-19 lockdowns.

“Previously girls used verbal altercations, now they are using physical violence. Teens, especially girls are becoming immune to acts of violence because of what they are seeing on social media,” said RMIT education expert Dr Elise Waghorn.

“There has been an increase in platforms housing videos that show violent attacks so therefore, with girls having a greater presence on social media, they have been exposed to this violence at a higher level, and therefore becoming immune to it.

Hayley Hill with her 10-year-old daughter Sienna, who was choked by a boy at her school. Picture: Sue Graham

“(Violence) is not affecting them as much. They aren’t seeing it as a significant problem any more,” she said.

Crime statistics show that, between 2021 and 2023, NSW recorded a 20 per cent year-on-year jump in the number of girls assaulting others on school grounds.

In 2021, 244 girls assaulted others on school grounds. In 2023, that number was 356. The number of boys assaulting on school grounds went from 308 in 2021 to 418 in 2023.

It’s a concerning trend, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said.

“The (statistics) are surprising, the scale of the increases are certainly on the high end. And it’s quite different to what we’re seeing in other crime patterns,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

“The size of the increases are much more pronounced for the girls. Girls rates of participation (in violence) is approaching where we are with boys and that surprises me.

“We are getting to the point where it’s almost half of girls and half boys.”

Dr Waghorn said the effects of Covid-19 lockdowns have finally come home to roost.

“The social media that kids were exposed to during Covid is finally having its fallout effect,” she said.

“Children were exposed to so much social media during lockdown … unfortunately, the damage is already done for this particular generation, so we now need to educate society better,” she said.

A search on social media revealed a disturbing number of Instagram accounts created to share content of students fighting in NSW schools.

Year 11 student Emily Gardiner said that, when fights erupt at school, everyone records it.

“The first thing to come up is the phone. It doesn’t matter if they are banned,” she said.

The teenager said school violence is constant, and that it makes it hard to focus.

School bullying video from Elderslie High School filmed in November 2022.

Girls are now almost as likely as boys to be involved in violence.

“If you see someone who wants to hurt you in your class, you don’t even want to line up to get in,” she said.

“You always feel like you need to be prepared. I don’t think I would get into a fight, but I know it is a risk I take by going to school.”

Ms Gardiner said the fights are gruesome, and often involve knives.

Central Coast mother Hayley Hill said the crisis has gotten out of control. Her nine-year-old daughter Sienna Hill was choked at her primary school during lunchtime.

“I was sitting at the dinner table, and I noticed there were marks around her neck … she told me that she was in sickbay because a boy had choked her,” she said. “It was just a horrible experience. It’s the world we live in now. I am scared for my daughters.”

BOCSAR figures show that female students were also increasingly victims of violence – over the three years, the number of girls who were victims of assault at school jumped from 655 to 1081.

According to BOCSAR, in 2021, 832 boys were victims; that had risen to 1415 last year.

One inner west mum, who wished to remain anonymous, said her son was traumatised after watching a girl in his school have her head stomped on by a group of girls.

While the incident happened outside of the school, he told her assaults inside the school grounds were common.

“They know this is happening, but they just don’t have the support to do anything about it,” she said.

“They can’t suspend the kids continually, and they want to try to reduce the suspensions, so they just send them back to school.

“I am 46 and have never seen someone get their head stomped on. He is 12 and was exposed to that.”

She ended up pulling her child out of the school, terrified for his safety.

Belinda De Gioia with her 14-year-old son, who was assaulted at school. Picture: Tim Hunter

While the number of violent girls has jumped significantly, boys still just make up the majority of juvenile victims of assault on school premises.

Penrith mum Belinda De Gioia’s son was beaten at his high school. The assault was filmed and shared on social media.

“It feels like unless you can afford to send your kid to a private school, you are sending them into the lion’s den,” she said.

The figures include assaults that occur at both public, private and religious schools and those occurring during or outside school hours. They do not break down whether the assaults were committed by a student or member of the public.

The rise in violence at schools comes amid revelations that Australian children are among the most bullied children in the world.

Dr Waghorn said the findings of The Australian Council for Educational Research report were concerning: “Only students from Poland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and the United States feeling less safe,” she said.

A Department of Education spokesman said that all students, staff and visitors have a right to feel safe at school. “Even one incident is too many, and we have measures and supports in place to respond. Violence is not tolerated in schools, and we work closely with NSW Police when matters require police assistance,” he said.

Child and adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said the increase of violence among girls could be contributed to changing gender roles.

“With traditional gender roles, girls felt that violence was a pretty masculine sort of thing to do, and weren’t motivated to do that. Now, they may feel more pressure to assert themselves in ways that are more like boys,” Dr Carr-Gregg said.

He echoed Dr Waghorn’s belief that social media had inflamed the violence.

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Originally published as Mean girls: Huge spike in female school fights blamed on social media