Lockdown Kids: ‘My mate pulled a knife on a terrified family … it broke my heart’

The country is gripped by a youth crime crisis and this teenager explains the top reason he and other kids have turned to violent crime.

• WATCH: Lockdown Kids Episode 4

Teenager “Dylan” was on a never-ending rampage of stealing cars, breaking into homes and damaging property, then revelling in the notoriety of posting it on social media.

But it reached a terrifying turning point during one late-night home invasion, when his mate pulled a knife on a terrified family who had interrupted their raid.

“We shat bricks and the first thing my mate does is, boom, straight pull out a knife,” says Dylan, who cannot be identified but is from the Gold Coast.

“I was just like ‘f--k, what are you doing you idiot?’ Like you can’t be doing that. He ended up holding that whole family up at knifepoint.

“When I see the family there huddled up, they’re scared, they’re hugging each other, they’re praying to God that nothing happens to them, that breaks my heart.

“I shed a tear, it was the first time I ever shed a tear (for) anyone else.”

Dylan says during Covid-19, he watched his mates bragging about their reckless, adrenaline-fuelled rush of crime on social media – and he wanted in.

“Dylan” at says watching his mate pull a knife on a terrified family “breaks my heart”. Picture: Susann Kovacs

“I was just like ‘I want to really get my name out like that’, and I started doing it even more, I was bad with it,” he says.

“It was bad during Covid. It was real bad, like, everyone was posting. Open up your phone on Instagram, Snapchat, it’s just people getting into cars, like, they’re doing dumb shit.”

Before long, Dylan was caught in a never-ending rampage of stealing cars, damaging properties and breaking into family homes. He would film his crimes and then post them on social media.

“Everyone was doing it. I was doing it. My mates were doing it. It was like a normal thing,” he says.

Dylan is one of two teens who tell their stories in Lockdown Kids: How To Break a Generation, a docu-series that delves into the long-term impacts of placing the nation’s children into lockdown during the pandemic. Today’s episode shines a light on the rise of youth crime for likes on social media, and you can watch it above.

Max says he met new friends Instagram and Snapchat during Covid. Picture: Susann Kovacs

Max reveals that he met new friends on Instagram and Snapchat during Covid and they would meet up to try and outdo each other.

“We all just come up in one group and then we just go get cars just to do bashing, pull out knives, you know, and just threaten everyone,” he says.

“Going at high speeds, showing off, who can go faster, who can get the best cars.”

Last year, Max and Dylan joined Esuarve, a not-for-profit organisation working with young offenders in southern Queensland and reporting significant results. Only 2 per cent of those who take part in its programs end up back in prison.

The teens credit Esuarve with getting them on the right track of life.

“You just need to think about who you’re hurting at the end of the day,” says Max.

Dylan says he’s “glad I made it out of it all alive”.

“I can’t really look back at who I was because it still breaks my heart to this day, all the people I’ve hurt, all the families I would have destroyed,” he says. “I’m really f--king sorry. I know it’s not an excuse … but all I can say is I’m sorry. And I will do better.”

Associate Professor Renee Zahnow, an expert in crime at the University of Queensland, says the isolation of Covid changed the way children and young teens socialised and disconnected them from their communities.

Dr Zahnow says the act of posting their criminal antics on social media also dimmed their gravity.

“They have perhaps established this sense of when it’s online, it’s just funny. It’s like watching a film, so by me posting something online, that’s entertainment. And I’m providing entertainment for others,” she says.

Watch every episode of Lockdown Kids: How to Break a Generation right now.

Originally published as Lockdown Kids: ‘My mate pulled a knife on a terrified family … it broke my heart’