Adelaide students posting sexist, racist, lewd videos on TikTok social media app

School students from public and private schools across Adelaide have joined a craze for posting offensive videos of themselves filmed at school and in uniform.

Adelaide students as young as 12 have joined an international craze for posting offensive videos of themselves filmed at school and in uniform, reigniting political debate over the need for phone bans.

Labor MP Jayne Stinson has written to private and public schools about parent concerns over videos on the hugely popular TikTok social media video app, showing “sexual behaviour or simulation, crude language including sexist, racist and vulgar song lyrics, offensive graphics (and) simulated violence”.

Ms Stinson provided about 30 examples posted by students from eight schools, including many involving Cabra, Immanuel and Xavier colleges, and said parents had sent her many more.

The Advertiser has chosen not to detail the more offensive content, but there are also safety fears over videos showing students diving into bins and bushes.

“Parents are worried about the escalating, competitive nature of the app which invites children to perform in a more and more extreme way for the camera,” Ms Stinson said.

SA Labor announced in June that, if elected in 2022 it would ban public school students from using their phones during the school day, and hoped private schools would get on board. Policies currently vary greatly between schools.

Education Minister John Gardner said schools were given resources to teach about the “appropriate and safe use of social media” and were “empowered” to deal with offensive behaviour.

TikTok is a social media app for creating and sharing videos. Picture: File

“While we support those schools who have enforced explicit phone bans during the school day, this alone will not stop this sort of behaviour and an educative response is needed to encourage our students to act respectfully and appropriately at all times – not just at school,” he said, adding most social media problems arose outside of school hours.

Immanuel College said the trend of TikTok videos “in school uniform or even at school in an attempt to ‘go viral’ or ‘become famous’” started in the US.

Students have been warned it is against college policy and also “a significant privacy risk” for them.

“Our students have been very cooperative in removing any of the (videos) we have been aware of,” Immanuel said. Xavier College said counselling and “disciplinary measures” were taken “immediately” when it became aware of the videos last term. Cabra said it helped students make “good choices” online.