CID finds children promoting ethnic and religious hatred

Using mobile phones of their parents, some school children have been involved in spreading hate speech against ethnic groups and religions, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has found.

A senior CID officer said detectives had found that a number of school children had formed social media groups and were spreading hatred or promoting violence against other communities and religious groups.

In addition to five cases where children were directly involved in promoting hatred, a number of others were involved in similar activities, he said.

The CID officer said that under existing laws, action could be taken against persons above the age of eight if they were involved in spreading hatred against other ethnic groups and religions. Those found guilty could be sentenced to seven years in jail.

Among the cases under investigation is an instance where a student shared information on manufacturing petrol bombs while in another instance a student had called persons to gather for

an attack on places of worship.

In five of the cases, CID teams found that the students had made use of the mobile phones of their parents to spread hatred. They had apparently done this without their parents' knowledge.

"We will not be lenient because they are children. We will take tough action against the students," the CID officer warned.

The moves came as the CID continued to monitor social media regarding instances of spreading hatred against ethnic and religious groups.

Meanwhile Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando told the Sunday Times they were looking into possible amendments to laws regarding misuse of social media to spread hatred or also defame people.

He said examples would be taken from other countries.