Fears for fight films

An escalation in the number of social media fight pages across the State has prompted South West police to demand more strict controls over mobile phones on school grounds. The call follows a public school phone ban introduced earlier this year and Legal Aid WA’s concern over an increase in the number of social media pages dedicated to school fights. The organisation attributed the hundreds of violent videos showing students attacking each other in schoolyards to “COVID-19-induced boredom” and warned that students who used fighting as a means of dealing with the boredom could alter the course of their future. “While we are well aware these pages have been around for some time, they have been on our radar since the pandemic,” LAWA solicitor Casey Johnston said. “We have seen a few dedicated fight Instagram accounts in Bunbury, but we’ve found that once they get shut down, the students remake new accounts. “I think the creation of these pages stems from a combination of different factors such as boredom, peer pressure to impress someone or just the stigma surrounded by being a tough kid.” Highlighting how widespread the problem was, there are dedicated fight pages for the Kimberley region, Albany, Carnarvon, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton and Northam. “It is unfortunate that we have many young students and parents unaware that filming or encouraging fighting can also be against the law,” Ms Johnston said. There are three active Instagram accounts dedicated to fights in Bunbury, one which has more than 2400 followers. A user’s Instagram bio claimed an account which was shut down had more than 10,000 followers. “If schools are able to restrict access to mobile phones then kids don’t have the recording devices to film incidents like this,” Bunbury police acting Sen. Sgt Terry Townsend said. “Some schools have gone down the path of taking mobile phones off students when they enter school grounds and I think policies like that can really help. “Once things are out there on social media platforms, they are extremely difficult to take down and we can’t change the fact they have been exposed to these videos.” South West regional executive director Neil Milligan said he was aware and disappointed that some “fight” pages had appeared on social media platforms recently. “If public school staff become aware of these offensive pages, they report them to the platforms and ask for them to be taken down,” Mr Milligan said. “Videos of teenagers fighting and hurting each other should not be allowed to remain on these sites and we expect the platforms to do the right thing — for our kids, and our communities.”