TikTok, Snapchat ‘challenges’ sparking child crime wave: WA minister

Police believe videos posted to TikTok and Snapchat are exacerbating an unprecedented crime wave across regional Western Australia.

Social media giants TikTok and Snapchat have been told to take action over videos posted to their platforms that police believe are exacerbating an unprecedented crime wave across regional Western Australia.

Police Minister Paul Papalia has written to federal Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, calling on the common­wealth to use its powers to compel social media companies to be more proactive in removing criminal content and identifying culprits before the videos can help feed an ongoing “competition” among rival Kimberley and Pilbara gangs.

Mr Papalia sent the letter soon after a stolen vehicle occupied by 11- and 12-year-old boys and a 13-year-old girl rammed a police car into a tree in Broome, injuring two officers.

The Australian can reveal the children recorded the incident and posted it to TikTok shortly before they crashed into a tree.

It is understood that since September, there have been at least 12 incidents of juveniles in stolen ­vehicles attempting to ram police cars as part of an ongoing “TikTok challenge” in regional WA.

Nine police vehicles have been severely damaged as a result of those incidents, and four police officers hospitalised.

Other social media videos include a trio of juveniles ransacking a house, with one boy brandishing two rifles that appear to have been stolen from a gun safe.

Others show young children in stolen vehicles, with some boasting of having taken as many as three cars in a single night.

Western Australian Police Minister Paul Papalia

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher.

In Mr Papalia’s letter, obtained by The Australian, he told Mr Fletcher that juveniles in the Kimberley and Pilbara had formed groups on TikTok and Snapchat in which they compete in criminal “challenges”.

“The WA police force has been attempting to work with the social media companies to have them remove inappropriate or illegal material with only limited engagement by the platform operators,” he wrote. “I request that you investigate any legislative authority you might employ to compel greater co-operation from the social media platforms to disrupt the practice of sharing imagery of criminal activity.”

Crime levels in the Kimberley have touched unprecedented levels in recent months. December set a new record for burglaries and assaults, while car thefts were the second-highest on record, just behind the high set in September.

Opposition MP Neil Thomson, whose electorate includes the Kimberley, last week conducted a series of community crime forums across the region.

He said there was a growing feeling of despair in Kimberley communities, with the social media challenges having amplified the region’s historical issues.

“While there’s a long, sad history of alcohol and the breakdown of parenting in a small group of families, one of the solutions put forward is there needs to be stronger state and federal intervention in the control of social media,” he said.

Mr Fletcher told The Australian he expected the social media companies to co-operate with the police. “The reported online conduct is foolish, dangerous and illegal; it is easy to understand the concerns of the police,” he said.

“My office has been briefed by these platforms who have confirmed they will work closely with the police on this matter to address the risk to the community.”

The federal online safety act, which came into force in January, includes an expectation by the government that platforms will consider “emerging threats” in the design of their products.

The eSafety Commissioner has the power to ask platforms to report on how they manage emerging threats under that act, with fines of more than $500,000 if they do not comply.

The commission, however, has been designed to tackle issues such as online trolling and bullying, revenge porn and child exploitation material rather than material such as that coming out of WA.

Spokeswomen for TikTok and Snapchat said the groups were committed to work with police.

The focus on the role of social media companies in ensuring their content does not feed into the cycle of crime in the Kimberley and the Pilbara is the latest in a long line of regulatory issues to emerge in the social media industry in Australia.

Last year, Facebook briefly pulled all Australian news content off its platform in response to the government’s new media code. Implementation of that legislation has been closely watched around the world.