Dominic Perrottet says parents must take responsibility for social media ‘cesspit’

Parents need to take responsibility for students’ social media activity, Premier Dominic Perrottet says amid a disturbing rise in online vitriol.

Parents need to take responsibility for their children’s social media use, Premier Dominic Perrottet says, in the wake of scandalous school student chatrooms exposing the “cesspit” festering online.

“We can hardly expect our kids to treat other kids with respect online when adults don’t either,” Mr Perrottet said on Monday, while officially announcing the introduction of 130 new ‘behaviour specialists’ to be introduced at public schools across NSW.

Mr Perrottet’s message comes in the wake of a string of students being suspended from one of Sydney’s most prestigious private schools, Knox Grammar, after The Daily Telegraph exposed a chat room where vile child abuse material, racist and homophobic videos and rantings on violent misogyny were posted.

The Premier on Monday said adults need to take responsibility for “social media (becoming) more and more of a cesspit”, saying children alone can’t be blamed for posting “terrible” messages online.

“Parents (and) adults in our society have an obligation to lead and treat people with respect and the reality is social media becomes more and more of a cesspit, which is led by adults in the main.”

“We have an obligation as well as … parents to set standards, to set the highest standards possible when it comes to social media engagement.”

Premier Dominic Perrottet (second from left) and Education Minister Sarah Mitchell (second from right) at Putney Public School on Monday.

Mr Perrottet on Monday announced a statewide behaviour expert would be brought in by the government to pull school students into line after a disturbing rise in bullying, racism, misogyny and vile sexual discussions online, in a cross-sector agreement between public, Catholic and independent schools.

He said the three school systems would be able to tap into the NSW Chief Behaviour Adviser to help lift behavioural standards across all schools.

The number of behaviour specialists in public schools would also be increased by 130 to 200, while a new “Premier’s Respect Award” will be handed out in every school to recognise children doing the right thing.

Mr Perrottet said despite the focus on children’s behaviour worsening over two years of Covid-induced online learning, the buck stopped with adults.

“Parents have an obligation in being engaged in their kid‘s development (and) behaviour at school … it’s about identifying … that particularly over the last two years, we’ve seen a rise in behavioural issues in schools and with kids, and that’s only natural,” he said.

“So when we jump on the back of kids who have who were saying terrible things on social media, we should also reflect on ourselves and see what our responsibility is as adults to lead in relation to this space.”

He also said the new measures announced on Monday weren’t “off the back” of media reports of online schools scandals, including the Knox Grammar affair, saying it was a “statewide” program to be rolled out.