10 hours ago
Criminals who boast about offences on social media to face two more years in jail
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.
Ms Kilkenny said the new legislation would apply to any offender, but the trend was being predominantly observed among young offenders.
"Whether that's to encourage copycats or to re-traumatise their victims, it is completely unacceptable and we are going to put a stop to it," she said.
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."
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.
