The sharing of a ‘sickening’ child abuse image among up to 20 boys at a private school in Melbourne has sparked a police investigation.
It’s understood a sexually explicit child abuse image followed by sexist and racist comments were shared in a Year 10 cricket group chat on Snapchat.
Haileybury Principal Derek Scott said the $40,000-a-year school took action ‘immediately’ after a parent became aware of the content last week.
‘All students involved were spoken to and their families were informed,’ he said.
‘Victoria Police investigated the matter and advised the school that no further action would be taken.
‘The most appropriate course of action would be an internal school response.
‘It has been made clear to the students that this behaviour is totally and unequivocally unacceptable. Haileybury has zero tolerance for this type of conduct.’
The co-ed college, which has four campuses across Melbourne, is still investigating and warned students ‘appropriate disciplinary action will follow’.
The $40,000 school said it took action ‘immediately’ after a parent reported the group chat
But cyber safety expert Susan McLean believes further investigation needs to be done by police, to identify the content being shared by 15 and 16-year-old boys.
Ms Mclean said the sharing of child abuse was a ‘highly criminal behaviour that should not be treated as an educational opportunity’.
‘Unless there are consequences for these criminal acts, they will continue to happen.’ she told the Herald Sun.
Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed in a statement that a ‘sexually explicit image [was] distributed in a group chat online in March’.
‘A Keysborough school provided education to students to address this matter,’ it said.
Haileybury has previously faced criticism for negative attitudes towards women, with a female student in 2021 claiming a culture of misogyny was rife in the school.
The college has four campuses across Melbourne, including the southeast suburb of Keysborough where the image was shared, and charges $39,985 per year for Years 9-12, $34,315 for years 5 and 6 and $22,520 for Reception and Pre-Prep.
A number of other schools across Melbourne have faced similar recent incidents involving students sharing sexually explicit content.
Haileybury is one of many schools recently rocked by incidents of explicit images being shared
A 16-year-old boy from Gladstone Park Secondary College was arrested after photos of female students were edited in a ‘sexually explicit’ manner using AI, and shared online.
Up to 50 students from Bacchus Marsh Grammar between years 9 and 12 were also edited with AI to create fake nude images, which were spread on social media.
Two weeks ago it was revealed a 12-year-old student at Bundoora Secondary College was subjected to rape threats just five weeks into her first term by cyberbullies.
The year seven girl was targeted by classmates who used the gaming chat platform Discord, to share sexual taunts and harassment.
The mother of the student claimed the school took no action, and police were able to issue only a caution due to the students being under the age of 14.
