Explicit Facebook posts slammed

The mayor of Tauranga will investigate a Facebook page that was set up after the New Year's Eve party at Mt Maunganui

Teenagers have posted explicit comments on a Facebook page dedicated to a New Year's Eve party at Mt Maunganui, including accusations of sexual assaults.

On the page young people appear to boast about sexual exploits on the beach, underage sex, allegations of sexual assault and rape, violent assaults and numerous fights, as well as nudity and photographs of drugs and drug taking.

There are pro-Mongrel Mob posts, as well as misogynistic and racist comments.

Some posts have notched up more than 1000 'likes'.

The page appears to relate to a New Year's Eve beach party that was held at Mt Maunganui on Thursday night, and was attended by an estimated 5000 young people.

Most of the posts are too explicit to publish

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby says the council will look into the site when it debriefs on the event with police, fire and ambulance.

The tales of sexual escapades and accusations of underage sex prompted a few users to advise anyone who went to the event to go to the doctor for a checkup.

One said: "Everyone on this page probably has STD, STI, HIV AIDS by now. go the clinic and get checked up!!"

Another called it a "slutty event".

A barrage of xenophobic and racist comments towards the Indian community were sparked by an accusation that an Indian man was spotted trying to pull a young girl behind a restaurant. He was then beaten, the post said.

One man said he would not return to the event after spending his night fending off would-be molesters from his family members.

He concluded by warning parents not to let their children attend the event unaccompanied by an adult.

Tauranga police today said they were unaware of the Facebook page.

There were 43 arrests made on New Year's Eve to 4am on January 1 in the region, Inspector Clifford Paxton said after the event. Of those, 21 were for disorderly behaviour and 16 for fighting, including seven juveniles.

The numbers needed to be put into context of the 47,000 revellers who attended NYE celebrations in the Mt Maunganui and Tauranga area.

Mr Crosby said such accusations were a concern, but said much of the night was family-friendly.

"I was actually down there early on in the evening and I opened the latter part of the concert because the council does provide entertainment and quite an extensive liquor free zone etc," he said.

"I would obviously, if those allegations are correct, be very concerned. That's not what we invest in that event for. It's the opposite actually, it's to create a family atmosphere and there definitely was a family atmosphere.

"But in saying that there's no doubt that when you mix youth and alcohol together there can be issues. So certainly from a council perspective, and my perspective, we invest a considerable amount of resource to making New Year's Eve family friendly down the Mount, but I guess there's always a few that will spoil it for others.

"But the racist part would worry me if those allegations are true, because there was a reasonable amount of the Indian community down there. We have a very high proportion of the Indian community in and around Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty."

Mr Crosby said the council would look at the page as part of its post-New Year's Eve event debrief with police, fire and ambulance, around mid-January.

"I will look at it, and we can use that information as part of our debrief moving forward to see if we can reduce that risk for future years."