WARNING: Graphic
UNIVERSITY students are being subjected to sexual harassment without their knowledge in targeted social media pages to find crushes and admirers on campus.
Several student-led pages are causing a stir at universities around the country as students are inadvertently identified when tagged in posts or secret photos of them are shared without their knowledge.
Some students have criticised posts as being racist, vulgar and graphic, but there is little universities can do to shut the anonymous groups down.
The Griffith University Crushes 2.0 Facebook page has long been a controversial forum for the Queensland’s institute’s several campuses, with many students complaining about its offensive content.
Students can submit their “crush” through a separate “CrushNinja” website anonymously and upload photos to be approved by administrators to post on the Facebook page.
Despite asking users to ensure their submission complies with the Facebook Community Standards, several fail to fall in line with the page’s own standards.
Other pages such as Bond University and The University of Queensland Love Letters work in similar ways.
Students races are pointed out and in one worrying case a student made a homosexual joke about a boy and revealed where he lived on campus.
“To the two Arab looking guys with beards (the really tall one, and the short one), me and my friend want to go tag team on you both,” says one post.
The BU Love Letters page looks to have been taken down in recent days after students initially said it was a bit of “innocent fun”.
But Bond student Bradley Evans disagreed, telling the Gold Coast Bulletin the page could affect their mental health.
“It’s pages like these that are especially worrying,” Mr Evans said.
“If there are self-confidence or mental health issues involved, or if it digs up issues from someone’s past — it could still trouble them if mentioned.”
Last year a survey of university students in Australia revealed the worst campuses for sexual harassment and assault.
The Australian Human Rights Commission surveyed 30,930 students at 39 Australian universities finding one in five of them had experienced sexual harassment in a university setting, which included travel to and from campus and uni-endorsed events off campus.
Even when travel to or from university was excluded, the commission found 21 per cent of students were sexually harassed in a university setting in 2016.
Bond and Griffith universities have condemned the pages, reporting them to Facebook or asking for them to be shut down.
Griffith students are supposed to be bound by the university’s “Student Charter, Student Misconduct Policy and Social Media Guidelines”.
Griffith University Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Debra Henly said the university was committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment, both on campus and online, free from harassment, bullying, discrimination and assault.
“Cyber-bullying and harassment are no exceptions,” Prof Henly said.
“Student misconduct and disciplinary proceedings may be imposed for any student found in breach of these behavioural standards.
“The university has zero tolerance for bullying and harassment and actively promotes healthy and respectful relationships through our Safe Campuses initiative.”
