{"id":8352,"date":"2026-05-10T04:59:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T04:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/8352\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T04:59:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T04:59:21","slug":"teens-in-was-north-sound-alarm-on-alt-social-media-profiles-after-violent-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/8352\/","title":{"rendered":"Teens in WA’s north sound alarm on ‘alt’ social media profiles after violent attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teenagers in Western Australia’s north are warning there are multiple ways to circumvent Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s amid concerns about accounts spreading malicious content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Methods include creating anonymous or fake profiles, also known as “alt” accounts.<\/p>\n

The comments come after a Broome student was assaulted after mistakenly being thought responsible for a fake account.<\/p>\n

\"Broome<\/p>\n

Shirley Wynne says reported posts and comments can take weeks to be removed from social media platforms. (ABC Kimberley: Rachel Jackson)<\/p>\n

Broome Senior High School student Shirley Wynne said young people were hiding behind these accounts to post gossip and malicious content.<\/p>\n

The 15-year-old said reporting within the platforms was not a quick fix, and comments or posts could take weeks to be removed after being flagged.<\/p>\n

“It varies, but a lot slides,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to get something taken down \u2026 it’s very like unlikely for your report to actually work.”<\/p>\n

\"Kyra<\/p>\n

Kyra Herveux says young people are not always using social media for the right reasons. (ABC Kimberley: Rachel Jackson)<\/p>\n

Kyra Herveux, who attends St Mary’s College in Broome, said many people were not using social media correctly.<\/p>\n

“They create fake accounts, spread gossip and are really mean to other people,” she said.Bullying escalates<\/p>\n

In April, a student spent more than 24 hours in hospital after being assaulted during an incident at Broome Senior High School.<\/p>\n

Her mother, who the ABC has chosen not to name, said her daughter was kicked repeatedly by another student and sustained a broken tooth.<\/p>\n

\"Broken<\/p>\n

The student sustained a broken tooth during the incident at Broome Senior High School. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Prior to the incident, the mother said other students had made a fake account depicting her daughter.<\/p>\n

She said social media had a “big impact” on young people, and increased awareness was needed to address violence in schools.<\/p>\n

“They’re still kids \u2026 they don’t know how bad this can be, or how much they can hurt someone else,” she said.\"Broome<\/p>\n

The assault took place between students after school at Broome Senior High School. (ABC Kimberley: Sam Tomlin)<\/p>\n

The mother said school staff had been doing “everything they could” to ensure her daughter felt safe to return to school.<\/p>\n

‘Clear consequences’<\/p>\n

In a statement, the WA Department of Education said it was aware of the incident, and violence was taken “extremely seriously”.<\/p>\n

“There are clear and immediate consequences for students who engage in anti-social behaviour,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

They said while principals and teachers had access to the resources to “take firm action”, the issue was not something schools could tackle alone.<\/p>\n

“Parents, caregivers, families and the wider community all have a role to play in reinforcing respect and appropriate behaviour,” they said.<\/p>\n

A WA police spokesperson said investigations were continuing into the incident.<\/p>\n

Calls for more education<\/p>\n

It has been about six months since the national ban came into effect, and students in Broome agreed not much had changed.<\/p>\n

\"Broome<\/p>\n

Lily Malcolm says reported posts and comments on TikTok can take weeks to be removed from the platform. (ABC Kimberley: Rachel Jackson)<\/p>\n

Broome Senior High School student Lily Malcolm said there should be better education about social media, instead of “just taking it away”.<\/p>\n

“They didn’t try to fix social media problems, they just banned it,” she said.<\/p>\n

The 14-year-old said there needed to be better regulations ensuring flagged content was removed.<\/p>\n

“The reports actually working and getting through, if they’re [young people] getting bullied and feel unsafe,” Lily said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, an eSafety spokesperson said they were aware some teens continued to access social media accounts and “reasonable steps” were being taken to prevent this.<\/p>\n

“We are working directly with social media companies to strengthen and uplift safety practices, and there will continue to be noticeable changes in underage detection and locking of accounts, as well as other compliance improvements,” they said.<\/p>\n

“Where companies fail to address these safety shortcomings, formal regulatory investigations and enforcement action will be forthcoming.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teenagers in Western Australia’s north are warning there are multiple ways to circumvent Australia’s world-first social media ban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2304,22,21,9756,9758,2601,5518,5824,1019,106,8068,9757,5521,464,353],"class_list":{"0":"post-8352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-assault","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-austrlia","11":"tag-broome","12":"tag-esafety","13":"tag-facebook","14":"tag-instagram","15":"tag-kimberley","16":"tag-school","17":"tag-social-media","18":"tag-social-media-ban","19":"tag-students","20":"tag-tiktok","21":"tag-wa-news","22":"tag-western-australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}