Instagram slammed for platforming ‘vile’ teen fights

Social media platform Instagram has removed an account that platformed over 140 graphic high school fights, after days of reports from concerned parents in Melbourne, Australia.

Southeast Melbourne high school students had become embroiled in a disturbing, violent “fight club” craze hosted on Instagram.

Parents and police had urged Instagram not to give such content a platform, but the Frankston Fights page showed dozens of fights between students from over ten public and private schools in the southeastern suburbs until Wednesday afternoon.

The page had developed over 2000 followers and contained videos of graphic fights, often showing teens’ heads being punched and stomped on – all while classmates cheered and egged on the fighters.

A senior source from within Victoria Police said the content on the pages was becoming increasingly “graphic,” fearing the trend could lead to a dire outcome.

“It’s very concerning because the footage is becoming more violent, and the young victims in these videos are sometimes bloodied and begging for help,” the source told the Herald Sun.

“It needs to stop because I fear someone is going to get badly hurt in one of these fights.

“The videos are extremely graphic, and it just astounds me that Instagram has not taken the reports seriously.”

The account prompted followers not to report it and already established a backup account.

A parent from one of the schools involved said she had tried to have the page removed for days but it remained live and active until Wednesday afternoon.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you report the page. It comes back with a message saying that the content doesn’t go against their guidelines which is just outrageous,” she told the Herald Sun.

“I felt sick to my stomach when I saw these videos. It’s just vile.

“I’ve now reported this horrible page more than ten times, and it still hasn’t been deleted. It’s still saying the content doesn’t go against their guidelines. It’s disgusting.”

Both the page and its backup are now gone.

News.com.au approached Meta, the parent company of Instagram, for comment on Wednesday morning, shortly before the account and its backup disappeared. The company did not respond.

Ten more disturbing fights were uploaded to the page in just two days after the original report from the Herald Sun.

One video uploaded on Monday featured two teenage girls.

Classmates are heard cheering as one of the girls grabs the hair of the other, throws her to the ground, and continues to stomp on her head.

Another recent post featured two boys punching each other before one reportedly falls to the ground, where he is then kicked in the head.

The Department of Education said it was working with community organizations and police to address and prevent any further violence.

“All schools have strong policies in place to address any incidents of violence or bullying, and where isolated incidents occur, schools take strong responsive action, including disciplinary action where appropriate,” a spokesperson said.

Victoria Police warned against celebrating, or sharing such material and encouraged witnesses and victims to report it instead.

‘Saw the trainwreck coming’

On Wednesday morning, child and family psychologist Clare Rowe addressed startling NSW figures showing that assaults in NSW schools have surged 50 percent in the last 10 years.

(The figures) are shocking. But they’re not surprising to me. Sadly, I’ve seen this train wreck coming for the last decade,” she told 2GB.

“I think it feeds back into the lack of discipline in schools.”

She said a failure to discipline children with “negative consequences” in primary school could be behind the rise.

“Primary school teachers are really restricted in what they can and can’t do in terms of discipline measures. And I’m saying, ‘Well, how about we give us some kind negative consequences to this behavior?’,” she said.

She said the same approach at home may also be to blame.

“If you’ve got kids literally assaulting each other to the point of police calling you we can’t put that just on teachers, what’s going on at home there?

“How on earth have we gotten to the point where there are literal punch ups to the point you have between groups of girls, to the point where we can’t control it, and we need the police in our schools? It’s absolutely unacceptable.

“It goes to a wider culture of teachers being restricted in what they can do, right from a kindergarten age.

“(Parents) need to just have a sit back and think “Hang on a second, what am I demonstrating to my child in terms of levels of authority? And how am I going to set them up for life when they do leave high school and have a boss and there will be people above them that we need to respect?”