The Head a school in the East Flemish city of Ghent has gone to the police because at least two of the school’s pupils have fallen victim to online bullying on anonymous gossip channels on social media platform TikTok. The gossip channels that are known as “Juice Channels” publish gossip by youngsters about their fellow pupils. The school’s Head Rik D'hollander told VRT News that several pupils complained to TikTok about the content published on the “Juice Channel”.
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Ghent school reports anonymous TikTok gossip channels to the police
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Mr D'hollander is the Headmaster of the Sint-Paulus Institute, a secondary school in Ghent. He told VRT News that “Two parents contacted me on Friday to say that gossip about their children had appeared on an anonymous TikTok account. What had been published about their children bordered on defamation. I then asked some of the pupils about the account and it turned out that they too did not agree with what had been published”.
On TikTok so-called 'Juice Channels' encourage people to pass on gossip, which is then shared publicly. "In some cases this is quite innocent, for example 'person A has a crush on person B, but in some cases It is also sexually explicit and really amounts to defamation”, Mr D’hollander said. Although only initials of those concerned appear in the Juice Channel posts, their full names appear in the comments posted as comments.
Several pupils reported the account to TikTok and the platform’s administrator has since deleted it. "As the pupils took action, I think the account only existed for a few hours or a day at most. On Saturday I informed our all teachers so that they could discuss it in their lessons. We also distributed a note to parents and students stating that we will not tolerate this kind of thing", the Headmaster said.
Although the school itself can’t file a complaint, parents can. "On the advice of victim support and our pupil welfare service employee, I also reported it to the police on Monday. The police said that there is little we can do as a school because the account has already been deleted. The parents whose children have been victims of defamation can file a complaint against persons unknown", Mr D’hollander told VRT News.
The school does not yet know who is behind the account, but it intends to find out. "We are conducting an investigation to find out who is involved. As soon as we find out, we will first talk to pupils concerned, and they will of course also be punished."