‘Seedy underbelly’: Social media warning

The principal of a prestigious school that made headlines after a group of Year 11 students were caught ranking their female classmates online has said there shouldn’t be a blanket ban on social media for young people.

The shocking list was posted by four boys from Yarra Valley Grammar School in Melbourne onto the platform Discord before it was discovered by the school in May.

The list featured photos of female students and ranked them from best to worst as “wifeys”, “cuties”, “mid”, “object”, “get out” and “unrapeable”.

Yarra Valley Grammar school captain Noah Cameron said he’d been shocked to learn his fellow students had published the list online.

“It was very confronting and shocking to see these attitudes that you hear about and are disgusting, and yet never ever think that they could come into a place where you exist and think is safe and respectful,” he told ABC’s Q&A on Monday.

Yarra Valley Grammar principal Mark Merry, who also appeared on the program, said that schools were at a “distinct disadvantage” at trying to monitor students’ online social media use without the support of government, parents and the community.

But he said banning online platforms for children and teens would be a step too far.

“I’m not a big ‘ban social media’ kind of guy,” Dr Merry told host Patricia Karvelas.

“I agree, (social media) is very useful, it does create connections, international connections, it does create fringe groups and so forth.

“I am not a fan of banning it, but beneath that is a very seedy underbelly. If we can see it in our context, be shocked by it, it can be happening anywhere.”

The boys responsible for the list have since either been expelled or disciplined.

SAFETY ISSUES “RIFE”

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant commended the school’s efforts in “taking action and taking a stand” in the wake of the scandal but warned that online safety issues remains “rife” throughout the community.

“This sounds strange for a regulator to say, but regulation alone is not going to help,” she told the audience.

“We have to bolster that with prevention on the front end, protection, but also proactive and systemic change.”

Ms Inman Grant told the audience there needs to be anticipation in technology trends and how they can be weaponised.

She said suspending students for “a few days” isn’t teaching young people what to do and insists parents need to be the “front-lines” of defence.

Dr Merry told the panel he had continued to work with staff and students about online safety.

But he says there is more that needs to be done.

“It certainly taught me that there’s a lot of competing and conflicting (issues),” the school principal said.

“One is to support those who are targeted and that’s the main imperative. The other one is to try to have just outcomes for the offenders, for want of a better term.

“The other one is to manage lots of different ideas and opinions out there in the public domain. Believe me, everyone has an opinion.

“So, I found that a very simple and singular event can have lots of damage out there.

“These attitudes have always existed. It’s just that with social media, they are amplified and the potential damage that can caused is much greater.”

Ms Inman Grant said 94 per cent of four-year-old children have access to a digital device.

“So, which are talking to parents from zero to five, be kind, ask for help, make good choices,” she said.

“We need to build the respect, responsibility. Digital resilience but also critical reasoning and train teachers.”

When asked whether these types of toxic masculine content is common, Noah said he’s been lucky that his algorithm doesn’t present him videos with Andrew Tate or those with similar views

But he told the show he is aware they are out there.

“It is very common of to think of yourself and your reality as being a bit isolated and away from these issues that are prevalent and people know about, but just assume that they will never touch their lives,” the school captain said.

“It’s beyond confronting … that with being online anything created that generates some interest spawns millions of copycats.

“I consider myself lucky. I have never organically seen an Andrew Tate video.

“It never popped up on my feed. I can’t say I’ve been able to avoid the thousands of videos I put out there trying to emulate that style and it becomes pervasive.”

CENSORSHIP ONLINE

Meanwhile, broadcaster and UTS Professional Fellow Josh Szeps was criticised for his behaviour on Monday’s show by a flurry of online comments.

Audience member Jie Su, who told the audience he was on the “same page as Elon Musk”, asked the panel their take on Musk’s determination to uphold the principle of no censorship on X, formerly Twitter.

Host Patricia Karvelas confirmed: “You don’t think there should be any censorship on Twitter?”

Mr Su responded: “Well, I’m on the same page with Elon Musk.”

The host said: “I have to ask Julie Inman Grant, you have had a very public barney with Elon Musk … how awkward.”

Ms Inman Grant recently made headlines after she discontinued her legal stoush against Elon Musk, the owner of X – formally Twitter.

She had initially taken Musk to court after X failed to remove a video depicting the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in a Wakeley church on April 28, 2024.

It’s understood the Commissioner is calling for an independent review of the sharing of the video.

Ms Inman Grant told the audience while freedom of expression is embraced, when it veers into online harm, silencing and suppressing voices, a line needs to be drawn.

She said the quicker harmful imagery is taken down, the more mental distress it relieves.

Ms Inman Grant said following the UK riots, Elon Musk was insulting inciting online hate by writing “civil war is inevitable”.

“(Elon Musk was) fermenting online hate and disinformation that was already violent, they had no recourse, because they don’t have similar tools,” she said.

“They had to send an open letter rather than send a formal removal notice.”

Mr Szeps then interrupted his panelmate to argue Musk’s comments were not incitement.

“There are a lot of people on the left, in particular, who seem to believe that they’ve got a monopoly on the truth,” he said.

“They feel quite unruffled about insisting that ideas that they disagree with, are beyond the pale. I would simply remind us all, that at every point in time in every place, the majority and the elite always think they are right by definition.

“They always think that ideas that they disagree with are hateful, objectionable, contrary to the common good.”

Online users were quick to slam the journalist for his behaviour on the show, claiming he had been interrupting and talking over other panel members early on in the show.

One user wrote to X: “Josh Szeps is hijacking the show. ‘Don’t speak while I’m interrupting’. He could bore for Australia.”

Another wrote that it was “the Josh show”.

“Can we hear from someone other than Josh?” another X user wrote.