Offenders who boast about their crimes on social media could be slapped with extra jail time under a proposal to go before Victorian Parliament today.
The Labor government said the “post and boast” legislation would apply to social media users convicted of high-risk, high-harm offences, such as aggravated burglary, armed robbery and carjacking.
Attorney-General Sonia Kilkenny said anyone found guilty of the new offence would face up to two years in jail, on top of any penalty for their original crime.
“Today, we’re introducing a bill into parliament that is going to outlaw this insidious behaviour that we’ve been seeing — an increasing, disturbing trend known as posting and boasting about certain crimes on social media,” Ms Kilkenny said.
“Crime is not content for social media platforms, it certainly isn’t entertainment and it’s no longer going to be tolerated.”
Ms Kilnenny said the trend was being predominantly observed among young offenders, with social media posts causing further trauma for victims and spreading fear in the community.
She said police would be undertaking social media searches, and the penalty would also apply to anyone who shared an offending post.
The state opposition indicated it would support the bill.
Shadow Attorney-General Michael O’Brien said the legislation was desperately needed.
“Too many offenders are committing crimes for the purpose of getting likes on social media,” Mr O’Brien said.
But he said the new law was long overdue, with Victoria being the last state to introduce it.
“The government’s been dragging its heels for over a year and, in the meantime, more Victorians have fallen victim to crime and then the added insult of having their crimes boasted about on social media.”
Opposition Leader Brad Battin accused the government of deliberately delaying the introduction of the bill to parliament.
“Crime stats are coming out Thursday, new legislation comes out Tuesday to say ‘we’re tough on crime’,” Mr Battin said.
But Police Minister and Minister for Victims, Anthony Carbines, said he made no apology for the time it had taken to bring the law to Victoria.
“These laws go further than New South Wales,” Mr Carbines said.
“They are broader, they capture more offences and I think we’ve worked very hard to make sure, looking at what other jurisdictions have done, that we can lead the way with the strongest post and boast laws.”
Crime becoming social media trend: lawyer
The Law Institute of Victoria’s Ben Watson agreed the law was overdue.
“We have been waiting with bated breath that this law would come in and it is quite prevalent,” Mr Watson told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“We’re seeing a lot of youth crime being posted and shared, and it’s increasing the amount of youth crime that’s occurring because everyone is jumping on this sort of trend.”
Mr Watson said jail terms did not appear to be stopping youths from committing their first crimes.
But he said he believed the extra sentence would “hurt” when it was imposed, and may deter them from re-offending.
Its alright introducing special laws for this sort of thing, but it won’t work if magistrates and Judges don’t hand down the sentences!! The vast majority of (re) offenders get a slap on the wrist and a “please don’t do it again” from them instead of the full force of the law. All we see is the well used “Community Service” order handed down time after time!