Adolescents

This blog post takes a view that contradicts the other points made in previous posts. This is due to naïvety of certain adolescents, who use social media in attempt to show off or look "cool," which often gets them into trouble.

But what is even more perplexing is that they seem to know that they will get themselves into difficult situations before they do it.

The London riots in August 2011 are a prime example of this.

As young people were breaking into shops and looting, not all of them were attempting to hide their identity. In fact, they were doing completely the opposite - taking to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to post pictures of themselves with the items they had looted and encouraging others to join in, as conveyed in the following article by Mail Online:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023667/London-riots-Looter-posts-photo-booty-Facebook.html

This is very interesting on a number of levels.

The other methods of online communication covered in this blog involve disguising or hiding the person's true identity to some extent. In a situation similar to the riots, when partakers are at risk of being reprimanded, you'd think they'd try to disguise their identity as much as possible, not broadcast their crimes online for all to see.

As portrayed in the BBC Three series, Our Crime, adolescents are committing crimes such as theft and mugging, whilst taking pictures and recording footage of them doing so on their mobile phones. They then put this footage onto social networking sites to look tough and to get people talking.

This is just making it easier for them to be caught, so why do they take the risk?

It comes down to adolescents' perception of "cool." In their mind, it's "cool" to commit a crime, and it's even "cooler" to get caught and be put in prison. Many young people nowadays see owning a criminal record as something to be proud of, which I cannot get my head around.


It may also relate to the fact that many young criminals do not realise that the police use social networking in order to track them down.  They seem to think that it's just their friends who can see the pictures they have taken and the videos they have recorded of their cruel acts.  As DC Scott Vivash of the Metropolitan police states in Episode 4 of Our Crime, "It is out there, and if you're going to put it out there, it is open to our interpretation as well." [Freedman, 2012]

I think that the punishment for committing a crime needs to become tougher, as adolescents are becoming less and less discouraged to behave in society. Breaking the law is something that they are going to seriously regret when they get older and are trying to achieve a place at university or get a job, and they need to be more aware of this.

Our Crime is on BBC Three on Mondays nights at 9. The series will available on BBC iPlayer for a limited time at the following link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00pj0m5 [Freedman, 2012]


"We are fighting a war with technology, and we're winning."
- DCI John McFarlane, Metropolitan Police [Freedman, 2012]


References

Online Article
DAILY MAIL REPORTER, 2011.  Twit and Twitter: 'Looter' posts photo of himself and his booty online as police say tweets were used to co-ordinate riots [online]. London: Associated Newspapers Ltd.  Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023667/London-riots-Looter-posts-photo-booty-Facebook.html [Accessed on 24 April 2012]

Television Episode

FREEDMAN, D., 2012. Director. In: Our Crime. [television]. London: BBC Three. 23 March.