TikTok moves to shutdown Geelong cyber-bullying accounts

A social media giant has moved to shutdown Geelong based accounts being used to slander young students, as principals of schools caught up in the concerning trend speak out.

TikTok has moved to shut down a number of accounts perpetuating cyber-bullying trends.

Social media giant TikTok has moved to shut down a number of Geelong based accounts after revelations at least 15 pages were being used to slander students.

It follows a Geelong Advertiser investigation that uncovered bullying practices being employed on pages that have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, including shaming named students for smelling; on good looks; and discussing the relationship status of others.

A TikTok spokesman said on Thursday “bullying is strictly not tolerated” on the app and they had already started removing the Geelong accounts.

“Each quarter in Australia we remove more than one million videos that breach our guidelines, with the majority of these picked up by our systems prior to any reports,” he said.

“We also make it easy for people to report content or comments in app.”

It is understood the company began banning accounts “Geelong.ships”, “Ghs.yr. 7.ships” “GeelongGorgeous2”, “Geelong.preties.stuff”, “prettygirlsgeelong”, Geelonghighschool.sht” and more after being alerted to them by this masthead.

Ships is Gen Z slang for relationship.

Some of the TikTok pages ask commenters to reveal the relationship status of fully named students, most as young as 12.

A number of Geelong school students have been exposed online.

The TikTok trend of reposting dancing videos of “pretty high school girls” was being used, while other sites attacked specific students with their photos and captions such as “when you walk past this girl you might wanna hold your breath”.

It comes as two principals from school’s involved called for faster and better education on the concerning trend, saying they had moved to put reporting services in place to support affected pupils.

St Joseph’s College Principal, Tony Paatsch, said the school had robust policies and procedures in place and had the wellbeing of students and staff at heart.

“We educate all students on the appropriate use of Information and Communications Technology and encourage and support our students to be safe online,” he said.

Clonard College principal Luci Quinn condemned the TikTok accounts, one of which claimed to be made by a student at Clonard, saying the school had begun educating students on reporting anything they saw online.

“Our work with families is also critical as often this behaviour is occurring outside of school hours and at times parents are not aware their young people are engaging in this type of online behaviour,” she said.

She said the school saw most instances of cyber-bullying in younger years of secondary schooling, around Years 7 and 8, and had encouraged families or students to also notify the police or eSafety commissioner when reporting the behaviour.

“This is not just a school challenge,” she said.

Originally published as TikTok moves to shutdown Geelong cyber-bullying accounts