Online bullying at Niue High School prompts investigation

An internal investigation has allegedly been launched at Niue High School to crack down on online bullying.

It comes after an anonymous TikTok account called ‘year9confess2025’, was reported to the school by concerned parents. Described as a “confessions” page, the account shared defamatory posts targeting Year 9 students. 

Screenshots of the account, shared with BCN News, revealed the account owner was a “spy” seeking “revenge” on students within that year. One if its posts read: “year 9 this year has no idea that I spy on them though I feel sad but I don’t give a f***.”

It labeled students as “w*****, b******, losers” and “dumb heads” and that the author of the posts would “never be found”. In a series of other posts, it named 14 students and some of their family members.

Principal Charles Ioane said this wasn’t an isolated case, as online bullying through anonymous social media accounts had been common in recent years.

“There have been a few of these pages that have popped up in recent times,” Ioane said.

“Cyber-bullying is rife, despite efforts to inform the students of the consequences.”  

The school had banned phones and access to social media from the school’s network was prohibited. Ioane said he believed the pages were originating from outside of the school even though it involved students. 

“We need to involve the parents and the police in dealing with the issue.”

Chair for the Parent Teachers Association James Douglas said they were aware of the case and were working with the school to find a way to “shut down” the media platform.

“It is very important that any type of bullying had a zero-tolerance level in any of our schools, which is the case for the high school,” said Douglas.

A parent, whose child was targeted on the TikTok account, told BCN that she was alerted to the issue yesterday evening.

Speaking anonymously, she said the content naming her child had been removed, but other defamatory posts targeting different students remained on the site.

“Our kids just don’t get the repercussions of their actions and that doing stuff like this impacts our kids differently.”

She questioned whether parents were doing enough to monitor children’s phones and accounts at home, and having open conversations about the dangers of online bullying, which can lead to self-harm.

“My biggest fear [is] that our kids that aren’t strong willed or don’t have supportive [families they can talk too], may take everything on board [and] have a big impact on their mental health, which may lead to suicidal tendencies.”

Niue has no existing laws on cyber crime, online harassment, and bullying. The country’s last attempt to tackle the issue was in 2015 when it launched its Cybercrime Policy and a draft Cybercrime Bill in 2016, which remains unpassed.

The country instead relied on outdated existing laws, such as the Niue Act 1966, that contains provisions for distributing indecent documents and search and seizure powers but it had yet to be updated to include electronic materials and devices.

While Niue’s law enforcement also investigated alleged cybercrime cases, it lacked a specialised cybercrime unit, relying on mediation between parties and victims to resolve cases.

“We hope to get to the bottom of this as quickly as we can,” said Douglas.

BCN News contacted Niue Police and is awaiting a response.