A Kiwi rugby league great has questioned New Zealand's human decency after two videos emerge of young girls being viciously beaten in Pukekohe.
The first video was filmed on King St in Pukekohe while the second video was taken outside Pukekohe North Primary School.
Police say the two incidents are linked and they are investigating.
In the video filmed on King St, a group of three young girls can be seen pinned up against the wall with three attackers - who are also young girls - standing in front of them.
The video shows the group of attacker kicking, punching kneeing the young girls who also have their hair pulled.
The second video - filmed outside Pukekohe North Primary School - shows a young girl in school uniform up against a fence with an attacker in front of her.
The video shows a girl swinging her fist at the head of the victim several times before kicking her. The suspect throws several more punches before pulling the young victim's face and head down and driving her knee into the girl's head.
New Zealand rugby league great Sir Graham Lowe told AM on Wednesday social media is to blame for the recent rise in youth crime.
"I put it down to maybe social media or whatever, people are trying to outdo one another for the most ridiculous things and human decency should be at the core of where we are all at," he said.
Lowe said things that use to be normal everyday things like manners and standing up for elderly people are disappearing from society.
"Unfortunately, manners and human decency and things like saying excuse me and standing up for a lady and things like that are slowly disappearing," Lowe said.
"When I was a kid - I mean, we were just as rough as people are now - but there was a rule you looked after ladies and you stood up for older people and there was decency that I think, unfortunately, for whatever reason, I'm not sure what the reason is, but it's disappearing from society."
Appearing on AM alongside Lowe, independent director and strategic advisor Ziena Jalil questioned why no one stop to help the young girls.
"You kind of wonder what's happening with society, and from what I can tell, it happened in broad daylight in what is a community place, was there no one else around? If there were people around, why did no one actually do anything?" Jalil questioned.
Jalil said she struggled to watch the two horrific videos.
"I really struggled to watch that last night and I tried to look away this morning. I have a daughter who's about that age and when you see something like that happening, you immediately think about, your child and other children," she said.
"It breaks your heart to think this is what's happening in our society. Of course, your heart goes out to the victims, but you also think about the children who are doing this, they're also children and you think what must be going on in their lives that they resort to action like this."
