Laws should be modified so social media platforms are required to proactively prevent posts boasting about criminal offences and police are given the power to send notices to remove the harmful content, according to an expert from The University of Western Australia.
Associate Professor Marilyn Bromberg, from UWA's Law School, was the lead author of an article published in the Criminal Law Journal, which states that the current versions of post and boast laws are unlikely to result in less posts that brag about crimes.
"The New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and Victorian governments passed post and boast laws that made it an offence to brag about having committed certain criminal offences on social media," Associate Professor Bromberg said.
The Western Australian Government is currently considering implementing a similar law, which is now before the Standing Committee on Legislation.
"The law is unlikely to be effective for many reasons, such as it does not address the root cause of offending," Associate Professor Bromberg said.
"There is no evidence that post and boast laws will deter young people from boasting about their crimes on social media.
"These laws will likely result in more young people being incarcerated or being incarcerated for a lengthier period, without a significant decrease in the number of posts promoting crime on social media.
"These posts are harmful and should not be online because they could encourage the people who view them to commit crimes.
"However, these laws are not the solution to this problem: social media must have the responsibility to prevent these posts from appearing and remove them if they do appear.
"Police should also be able to demand that social media remove these posts, with appropriate consequences to social media for breach."
Associate Professor Bromberg said there were instances of Australian judiciary and the judiciary overseas taking into account social media posts boasting about crime in sentencing, when the judiciary can apply appropriate discretion in making decisions.
