Students humiliated as disturbing “lacking” social media trend sweeps Victorian schools

Students are being menaced with tasers, bashed and having naked photos posted to sites such as Instagram, prompting a prominent politician to brand social media as dangerous as ice.

Victorian students are being threatened with tasers, having their heads shoved into toilets and humiliated with naked photos as part of a disturbing new trend dubbed “lacking”, in which footage is posted on Meta-owned Instagram.

The Herald Sun can reveal videos and photos are being shared on multiple social media pages, which promote the “lacking” trend and encourages teens to target their peers by posting degrading and explicit images of them.

“Lacking”, widely used in American slang, means “to get caught doing something”.

The Instagram pages, which are Melbourne-based, includes one shocking incident in which young pupil is seen trembling and screaming while another kid points a taser at him and presses the button near the victim’s body.

“Lacking” is a disturbing new social media trend emerging in Melbourne schools. Picture: Instagram.

Thousands of people are members of the private social media pages.

On another profile, a sickening collection of nude and graphic images of underage teens are featured, with cruel memes alongside the photos.

The profile shows several teens being accused of rape and other serious crimes.

In other confronting footage on a different “lacking” Instagram page, a young female teen is seen being set upon by another group of girls and ­repeatedly punched and kicked in the head.

The group of attackers then drag the schoolgirl and shove her head into a toilet while she pleads for them to stop.

There were several profiles found to be targeting trans ­students, with cruel captions including: “I’m a bisexual rat trying to become transgender.”

Footage uploaded to multiple profiles also showed ­students from Copperfield College and St Albans Secondary College engaging in fights.

A Herald Sun analysis of more than 20 Instagram pages featuring graphic or violent content – some ­created in 2016 – found they remained online despite ­having more than 100 school fight videos.

Parents say this is despite reporting the profiles multiple times in a bid to protect their children.

One Instagram page, followed by more than 11,000 people, featured several fighting videos posted in 2022.

Many of the clips show school-aged children brawling in shopping centres or on school grounds, amassing thousands of views and comments.

Some students are having their heads shoved into toilets as part of the disturbing trend. Picture: Instagram.

Schoolyard fights are also uploaded to the pages. Picture: Instagram.

Psychologist Evelyn Field, author of Bully Blocking – Empowering Students to Manage Bullying, described “lacking” as another form of cyber bullying that could have a “horrific impact” on both the victim and the perpetrator.

“We need to work together to reduce the amount of bullying in every school … because it is bad for children’s (development),” she said.

“Bullying also injures the bully. Research indicates they fail in school, they don’t have real friends and people are scared of them.”

The Herald Sun reported 22 Instagram accounts that promoted the lacking trend and violent videos to Meta, but only nine accounts were taken down. The rest remain.

A Meta spokeswoman said: “We have disabled the accounts we were made aware of for violating our policies against bullying.

“We have strict rules against sharing – or threats to share – someone’s intimate imagery, as well as violence and bullying and harassment. We will take action on anyone breaking these rules.”

Responding to the Herald Sun’s report, outspoken senator Jacqui Lambie likened social media to drug addiction.

“You can’t tell me there is not a connection with the behaviour of our children at the moment, and what is going on in social media,” Ms Lambie said during an appearance on Today on Monday.

“The damage that this gaming is doing to the brains of those kids is no different than having an ice pipe at 15 or 14 in your mouth.

“It is doing the same damage, the same frontal lobe damage.

“So there’s a reality check for you parents out there today.”

Ms Lambie has previously spoken about her son’s battle with drug addiction.

The Tasmanian senator backed a move by the government in South Australia to ban social media for children under the age of 14.

South Australia in investigating the legal pathways it has to rolling out such a ban which has been implemented in the US states of Florida and Texas and the nation of Spain.

Footage of students brawling at shopping centres appear on the pages. Picture: Instagram.

Parents have begged Meta to remove the disturbing footage from its platform. Picture: Instagram.

The Department of Education said it took a “zero tolerance” approach to bullying. Picture: Instagram.

A Department of Education spokesman said: “Victorian schools have zero tolerance for bullying or other inappropriate behaviour and take strong action against those found to be doing the wrong thing.

“All media providers have a critical role to play in preventing the publication – of content that promotes bullying and we are continuing to raise this issue with the social media platforms directly.”

ESafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said: “We regularly receive cyber bullying reports relating to school fight videos posted on social media.

“Sometimes these videos ­involve willing participants in a kind of Fight Club-style scenario, but they can also ­involve children who are unwilling victims of unprovoked physical attacks.”

A spokesman for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said: “The government expects industry – including Meta – to take responsibility for the content they host on their platforms, and take action accordingly on illegal and seriously harmful material.”

Groom MP Garth Hamilton, who spearheaded the development of the Coalition’s proposed “post and boast laws”, said Meta had a lot to answer for because a lot of inappropriate content online was not being removed.

Mr Hamilton said the Coalition’s legislation sought to penalise the user posting the content.

But he said governments were playing catch-up and needed to get ahead of the game.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said: “In Victoria, it is illegal to share an explicit image of someone without their consent.

“We encourage any person whose explicit image has been shared without their consent to report the matter to police.”