The mother of a 12-year-old girl linked to two stolen vehicles at the weekend says it’s part of a decline in her daughter’s behaviour she believes is linked to social media.

The Christchurch girl was part of a group of six police linked to the incident. Two boys, aged 9 and 11, allegedly stole two cars, crashing one into a traffic signal and trying to flee police in the other.

A police dog unit on Monowai Place located a 14-year-old boy and the 11-year-old thought to have been in the car.

Following inquiries, police also located two 12-year-old girls, a 13-year-old girl and the nine-year-old boy on nearby Pukaki St.

The 12-year-old’s mother Alice* told The Timaru Herald she hopes the incident can serve as a warning to other parents: “Don't take your eye off the ball.”

She said her daughter came from a normal middle-class family, and was well-behaved, until recently.

“Our daughter has had a good upbringing, we have taught her right from wrong, she is loved.

“However, we have allowed her a lot of freedom on her devices. It has become very addictive, and she has become accustomed to this.

"We were brought up with good values like duty, responsibility and consequences and she followed them for a while ... It's only in the last year or so we have seen rapid changes.”

She and her husband feel “awful” about the sudden change in their daughter’s behaviour, she says.

"It's emotionally gruelling for us. We have been questioning ourselves as parents. Especially her dad.

“If I went back I would have restricted this and looked at what she was viewing more. It was only recently that I came across videos with kids stealing cars, highly sexualised content, violent videos of young kids beating up other kids, a high emphasis on the glorification of gang culture.”

Alice says her daughter had run away from home on Thursday and was returned to them on Friday, but ran away again that night.

They received a call from police in Timaru on Saturday morning saying she had been found in a stolen vehicle.

Alice says her daughter has been in trouble with the authorities shortly before the incident. About a month ago she became defiant, angry and swearing, which escalated to violence, such as damaging her room.

She says her daughter had became involved with other children outside her social circle through social media apps, primarily Instagram and TikTok.

“My concerns about underage children is they are all starting to realise there are very few consequences to their actions.

“Many children are lonely, and they are highly influenced by their peers and since social media is such a huge pull, they can find other kids easily and share videos of other kids stealing cars, violent incidents in playgrounds all over NZ, kids beating up other kids, many kids standing around filming this.

“I believe there is an existential crisis among many of our youth. They feel they do not exist without photographing each other, sharing pictures of themselves constantly. They cannot exist without their phones.”

Alice says social media apps had become very addictive to young people and parents should “not take their eye of the ball”.

Alice says the culture change has happened “without much thought to the dire consequences” of unregulated social media and what youngsters witness on a daily basis.

“The education system should take a large share of the blame, as many of my daughter's friends have no interest in school whatsoever. Many of them no longer go to school.

“The schools are constantly chasing after behavioural issues, but there is no identifying why all of these kids are disengaged.”

She says parents starting to see a change in behaviour in their children should get help as soon as possible from relevant agencies and “don't give up”.

“Find an anchor as soon as possible if your child is beginning to get into trouble. This could be something they enjoy away from their devices, spend more time listening to what they are saying, listen to your instincts if you think they are lonely or depressed.

“If your child is telling you there are problems, listen and try to help any way you can as early as possible. And this could easily happen to your child. We did not imagine this would ever happen to ours.”

Alice says they've sought help from multiple agencies, such as Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Service and Oranga Tamariki.

She says with CAF, she had to prove her daughter was a serious enough candidate and with OT, her daughter was not seen as a high enough risk for them to take her on.

Her daughter was also attending the Enabling Youth programme for anger management.

Alice says the programme was excellent for her daughter, but she only got funding for 10 weeks, and she believes it should be extended much longer, and needs better funding from the Government.

“These organisations need more help as the problem is growing massively with our young children.

“Yes, we need more help, many of the organisations are now pooling together and tag teaming as they realise now this is becoming a crisis.

“And this problem will become bigger and more young children will start to offend, steal cars, act out in more violent ways and what are we going to do about it to stop this before it escalates?”

• Alice’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

-Yashas Srinivasa/Stuff.