Teen thugs use social media to ‘thumb nose’ at law as calls mount for new ‘post & boast’ laws
Young offenders are using social media to ‘post and boast’ about being pursued by police as crime sprees explode across Victoria, but politicians say there’s no need for tough new laws.
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Young offenders are using social media to boast about police chasing them in helicopters amid an alarming explosion in crime sprees and violent incidents across Victoria.
Fears are growing that teens are being “emboldened” because laws have not put a stop to them uploading videos and photos glamorising their dangerous and sickening behaviour online.
Several social media accounts seen by the Herald Sun show Victorian youths posing with weapons, including knives and machetes, driving recklessly, fighting, as well as spruiking stealing cars.
Two accounts posted aerial tracking of police aircraft, with another filming a patrol car following them in a high-speed pursuit. One video shared last month shows women running for safety as a vicious attack unfolds at a Woolworths supermarket.
It comes as more than 40 people including children as young as 12 were last week arrested for alleged armed robberies, car thefts, home invasions and aggravated burglaries in a major police blitz.
Both federal and state Labor have rejected the need for a tough new “post and boast laws” saying they were covered by existing offences and powers.
But federal Opposition communications spokesman, David Coleman, said these videos “demonstrate how wrong they are”.
“We’re seeing teenage thugs thumbing their noses at police in the absence of strong post and boast laws,” Mr Coleman said.
“Victorians are fed up with lawless hoons getting a free run online.
“These videos demonstrate why Victoria needs tough new laws to help stamp out these crimes.”
The Herald Sun last year revealed the Coalition would seek to crackdown on the shocking trend of bragging about illicit activities on social media by making it a crime.
In March, it introduced a bill in the federal parliament that could have put a person behind bars for up to two years for depicting violence, drug offences or property offences for the purpose of increasing a person’s notoriety.
Courts would also have been given the power to make orders to ban a person convicted of the new offence from using social media for up to two years.
However, the proposed overhaul did not proceed because it was not debated.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the federal government took the safety of Australians online seriously.
“The Online Safety Act already provides the eSafety Commissioner with broad powers to order the removal of material that promotes, incites or instructs people in crime or violence,” Ms Rowland said.
“The eSafety Commissioner can and does use these powers, and their established relationships with law enforcement, to get this material taken down.”
New figures reveal the eSafety Commission has issued 23 take-down notices for illegal and restricted content in the past two years.
It has acknowledged that it has only issued a “small number of removal notices” across all content categories, saying its “informal removal request process” had been successful in the majority of instances.
The Allan government last year shutdown calls for Victoria to follow other jurisdictions – including NSW – and introduce tough new laws, pointing to a charge created in 2022 following Richard Pusey filming dead and dying police officers after the Eastern Freeway crash in 2020.
Under the Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill new statutory offence of engaging in conduct that is grossly offensive to community standards of behaviour and carries a maximum five-year jail term, could be applied to criminals posting and boasting online.
But Victorian Opposition leader Brad Battin claimed that Labor’s failure to introduce strong post and boast laws had “emboldened young offenders in the middle of a youth crime crisis”.
“Those who abuse social media in this way are both retraumatizing victims and exposing the broader community to footage of often confronting offending,” Mr Battin said.
“No more excuses. The Allan Labor Government must follow the lead of other states and immediately introduce post and boast laws in Victoria.
Originally published as Teen thugs use social media to ‘thumb nose’ at law as calls mount for new ‘post & boast’ laws
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