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5,000 people investigated by police for something they said on Facebook or Twitter as 'social network crime' soars 800%- Crimes include posting menacing messages, and sexual offences such as grooming
- In 2008 there were just 556 reports of crimes; last year there were 4,908
- In 2011, 653 people were charged for crimes involving Facebook and Twitter
- Police: 'Officers should only respond to complaints that cause genuine harm'
Reports of crimes involving Facebook and Twitter - such as posting abusive messages, grooming and complaints of stalking - have increased eight-fold in four years.
In 2008, a total of 556 complaints were made to police, according to the statistics released by 29 police forces in a Freedom of Information request.But the phenomenon of social networking crime has grown substantially and last year 4,908 offences were reported in which the two sites were a factor.
The figures show 653 people were charged for social networking crime in 2011 alone.
I think this is an absolute disgrace and that most of what was reported isn't, or should be, a crime to say. I suspect that a very large percentage of complaints to the police were of people simply being abusive, obnoxious, insulting or unpleasant, or people taking offence at silly comments - you know, the kind of things that people used to say in the local over a couple of pints with their friends a couple of decades back, mostly without fear of harassment and arrest. Mostly, in those days it would have been sorted out either by fellow drinkers taking them to task or in more extreme cases or in rougher establishments, a punch-up. The problem with the Internet is that comments that previously would have been forgotten about in a couple of days at most (unless it's something serious) are stored in perpetuity now and can be picked over by people who are easily offended, or claim to be so for political or other gain.
We have turned into a nation of over-sensitive crybabies. The police and the politicians should mind their own business and should only ever intervene where there is a serious case to answer, or where people are at risk of being harmed - for instance, by creepy men trying to chat up underage girls and so on, or when there are credible instances (or threats) of harm.
Nick Pickles, of the website
[url=http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk"]Big Brother Watch[/url], had this to say:
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These figures show just how badly some police forces had lost all proportion when dealing with social media.
So many arrests was clearly undermining freedom of speech and while the new guidance should reduce the problem, hundreds of people now have criminal records for the rest of their lives when it is far from clear they should do.
The law around speech crimes is still in need of a total overhaul as the legislation that led to some of the more absurd prosecutions remains in place.
He's right - all these prosecutions will of course go on the regular CRB check, possibly with further innuendo on the enhanced version. I think that the CRB is a ticking time bomb in that it will trap more and more people and keep them out of work due to minor offences committed in the past.
As for the sheer misunderstanding - possibly malicious, possibly not - of government, the law and social media: think of the whole massive saga - that lasted two years or more! -
around Paul Chambers and his little joke on Twitter, for instance.
29 Dec 2012, 11:41 pm
