Police in Melbourne are reportedly dishing out fines to young children for riding their bikes on footpaths while holding their phones.
Witnesses have told Daily Mail Australia up to ten kids, aged between 11 and 17, were slapped with penalties for various offences during a fining blitz on March 8 around the city’s inner suburbs.
Victoria Police admitted that officers were within their rights to issue fines to young riders caught with phones in their hands, but insisted only four of the boys had been penalised on that date.
Police said they fined two boys, aged 14 and 15, $207 each for not wearing helmets and then a further two boys, both 14, for the same offence.
The second group of boys were also hit with $413 fines for riding through a red light.
‘Police spoke to the parents of a number of other boys in the group who were under the age of 14 and issued them with a warning,’ police added.
One boy claims he was hit with a $496 infringement notice after three officers pulled him over on a sidewalk for holding his phone while cycling.
Footage obtained by Daily Mail Australia shows the boy and two friends sitting on the pavement against a wall after being stopped by three police officers and ordered off their bikes.
The children can be seen gazing up at an officer as he questions them and takes their details, while the two other policemen on bikes stand guard.
In a separate incident, another child was slapped with two fines, worth $620 in total, after police stopped him twice just over an hour apart.
One boy was fined $207 for not wearing a helmet (pictured) and $413 for riding his bike through a red traffic light
Officers wrote him a $413 ticket just after 12pm for riding through a red traffic light in West Melbourne before he was dealt a $207 notice at 1.37pm for not wearing a helmet in Docklands.
Numerous other children were reportedly pulled over, asked to present identification, then given stern warnings.
In a second clip posted online, three police officers on bikes were seen on the same day stopping a group of young male riders as they cycled outside the Melbourne Museum in Carlton.
‘Buddy come here,’ a police officer says, beckoning one of the young cyclists, before asking whether he has any ID.
Another boy filming the interaction turns to a second police officer to ask why the boy would need to provide identification.
‘Why does he need ID? We are literally on the footpath,’ he says.
‘You were riding on the footpath weren’t you?’ the police officer responds.
The boy appears puzzled, muttering ‘riding on the footpath?’
But the statement irritates the cop, who yells: ‘You are not listening to me!’
The teenager tells the officer to stop yelling at him, but he says he does not have to stop yelling because the boy does not listen.
Footage posted online shows officers pulling over a boy on a bike in Carlton after he was spotted holding a mobile phone
‘You should, you’re making a fool of yourself,’ the boy says.
‘You’re the one who has broke the law,’ the police counters.
A Victoria Police spokesperson said officers spoke to a 12-year-old child about using a mobile phone while riding a bike.
‘On this occasion a warning was issued for using a mobile phone while riding a bike and he was not given a fine,’ they said.
‘Using a mobile phone while riding a bike is illegal and cyclists doing so maybe fined up to 10 penalty units.’
Another witness said officers were intimidating children who had not broken the rules.
‘The biggest issue I saw was cops getting kids details and taking photos of them for not breaking the law, then visiting them at home to scare them,’ the man said.
The Carlton footage has sparked debate on social media over who was in the wrong, with many siding with the police.
‘It’s the same as drivers, you can’t ride with a phone in your hand,’ one person said.
‘Well [by] looking at a phone and not where he is going he could easily go onto the road and get killed,’ another added.
But others argued the police should have opted for precautionary measures.
‘It’s a child, a warning would go a lot further than a fine,’ another man wrote.
‘There are bigger fish to fry than kids being kids,’ a fourth comment read.
In Australia, cyclists must follow the same road rules as drivers, which includes not holding a mobile phone while operating a vehicle.
Those caught breaking the rule in Victoria face a whopping $496 fine, with no loss of demerit points.
The police officer and a young boy filming the situation enter an argument over whether or not the riders had broken the law
