Taminmin College student cyberbully, sexually harass classmates on social media

Almost 50 social media pages dedicated to sexualising and bullying a Top End school’s students have been exposed. Read one concerned mother’s solution.

Sickening social media pages are allegedly being used to sexually target and cyberbully the Territory’s kids.

Taminmin College students are the subject of several anonymous Instagram pages dedicated to sexualising teens and bullying young children.

A concerned parent said some of the more explicit incidents were being recorded and posted in what she described as a “pornography high school Instagram group”.

The Humpty Doo mother said concerns about the problem were rising among several community members.

“High school students (are) using the park, skate park and scouts hall to wag school and have making out sessions while other students post it live so it can be rated,” she said.

“High school is hard enough without that, and then on top of it, having to feel like you can’t even go and tell someone about it.”

This publication found more than 40 Instagram pages dedicated to rating the looks of Taminmin College.

Some of the pages date back to 2013.

Other pages of a similar nature share videos of student fights, with comments on the posts sometimes inciting further violence.

“F—k her up ill (sic) be next to do that,” one user wrote in response to footage of a girl being brutally beaten by a fellow student in June.

It comes after Taminmin College called for a lockdown following a Code Red incident with one of its students.

“The school is taking a very ‘it’s outside of their control’ policy to it and the police aren’t really being able to do much either,” the concerned parent said.

The parent said that if it’s the students creating the pages “that’s inside of the school’s control, the school should be stepping up.”

“You want to start posting things and pretty much having ratings and it’s within a school setting, that’s the school’s area.”

Taminmin College notified parents of an incident that required police in February 2022. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

A Department of Education spokeswoman - speaking on behalf of Taminmin College - said the school did not condone bullying or harassment in any form and provided a social and emotional pastoral care program with a focus on cyber-bullying and emotional intelligence.

“School-based police offices provide curriculum and conduct lessons to students on cyber safety and personal safety. All students have access to a school counsellor,” she said.

“Taminmin College supports students and their families who are victims of bullying.

“Where families contact the school, the school proactively assists the family with options to contain the situation.”

An NT Police spokesman said police were acting on similar situations across the territory.

“NT Police are aware of multiple anonymous social media accounts involving a number of schools across the Territory where inappropriate and in some cases, illegal, content has been shared,” he said.

“A number of these accounts have been shut down.”

He said cyber-bullying could be reported online and would prompt a follow up from the Territory’s cybercrime unit.

It comes as the Australian Federal Police looks to recruit partner volunteers to deliver the its ThinkUKnow program.

ThinkUKnow is an online education program that aims to educate the community about preventing the online sexual exploitation of children.

Topics include online grooming, preventing inappropriate contact, sexting, self-generated content and sexual extortion.

Crucially, the program focuses on how to report sexual exploitation and where to seek help.

The concerned mother said kids’ boredom was a likely driver behind their sickening behaviour.

She said Humpty Doo’s population was outgrowing its infrastructure, leaving kids with little to engage with.

“Something as simple as putting a local swimming pool into the area, kids would have somewhere to go hang out,” she said.

She said an end to cyber-bullying would come down to a collaborative effort from the school, police, and the council.

“We’re going to end up with some creepy person hanging around the school,” the mother said.

“When kids are being kids and it’s going to that extent, the buck has to stop being passed around, something has to give.”