A Canberra high school is investigating a TikTok account which encourages students to rate their peers on sexual attractiveness.
The "smash or pass" account started on Tuesday and includes full names and photos of the students. It is unclear if they have consented to being part of the account.
An Education Directorate spokesman said the school became aware of the content on Tuesday and has requested it to be removed via the eSafety Commissioner.
"It is disappointing to see content of this nature circulating on social media. This kind of content is out of step from the culture we encourage in our community and within our schools," the spokesman said.
"The school is continuing to investigate this situation."
The spokesman said under the Australian curriculum students were taught about eSafety and how to be good digital citizens.
"This includes understanding the potential impacts of social media. When inappropriate social media content is brought to the attention of schools, action is taken to support impacted students and remind students of appropriate online behaviour," the spokesman said.
"Schools are also supported by the Education Directorate to follow the eSafety Commissioner's process for flagging and pulling down inappropriate content.
"In addition, the ACT government has invested significantly to support eSafety in public schools, including support for parents, carers and students."
Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT executive director Tim Bavinton said this incident was not isolated but presented an opportunity to educate students on healthy relationships.
"Where there isn't consent and where someone feels embarrassed or hurt by that then what they need from family is that safe place to land where they can talk about that and what they'll be needing from schools or other authorities in the community as a response that is effective but also measured, recognising that this is common," Mr Bavinton said.
"It's not something that we want to see but this is an opportunity to actually engage and talk about what's appropriate and not appropriate about this kind of conduct with the people who are doing it."
Mr Bavinton said it was normal for high school students to be interested in sexuality but that online rating activities was not a positive way to express it.
"This is a form of sexual harassment if the people involved don't meet legal age thresholds to do this kind of thing and there's no sense of consent ... permission being sought and respected in the process," he said.
"The content of this is very developmentally and age normal, but the way they're doing it is not. This is a moment to actually say, 'this is not how we do this stuff with each other in this community', and to acknowledge that if people have been particularly targeted in that, that they are owed an apology, they're owed some acknowledgement for that experience as well."
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