LAST UPDATE | 26 May 2020

TIKTOK SAYS ITS safety team will carry out an investigation into videos showing members of the public dangerously using farm machinery to carry out stunts.

It came after the Irish Farmers’ Association criticised several videos showing what it described as “dangerous pranks” using machinery.

The group has collated a number of videos, including one of an individual standing on the draw-bar of a trailer while it is being driven on a public road.

Another video shows a man sitting on the bonnet of a tractor while it is cutting silage, and in another, two tractors can be seen trying to overtake each other on a road.

IFA president Tim Cullinan called on those recording the videos to show more responsibility and expressed concerns that such individuals are putting their own lives and the lives of other at risk.

“It needs to be stamped out immediately,” he told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio.

“I think anybody seen doing this or making those videos, I think it’s a sackable offence… it’s an absolutely crazy situation.”

He also pointed to the fact that eight farm fatalities had occurred already this year, and suggested that the videos would not go down well with the families of those who have died.

“If some of those people making those videos were to call to a house where there has been a bereavement from a farm accident, I’m telling you they would not be out making those videos again.”

In a statement, the IFA called on farmers and contractors to make it clear to employees that making such videos is a sackable offence.

“This has to be stamped out… the last thing we need now is something like this going on around the country,” Cullinan added.

Commenting on the videos after reports emerged this morning, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed described their content as “alarmingly childish immature behaviour”.

“I see boys tasked with adult work clearly incapable of responsibility,” he tweeted.

“I’m sure their families will be mortified. They’re lucky that’s curable. Too many others are not so fortunate!”

With reporting from Press Association.