FROM THE SCREENS TO THE STREETS
The latest trend in technology sees kids committing crime on social media. How do we stop them in their tracks?
IT is a tale of two 13-year-olds.
Both have grown up on the Gold Coast. Both have beautiful families who love them dearly. They even share some of the same friends.
But while one sleeps soundly in his own home, the other has been on the streets – running with a gang of youths who steal cars and break into houses.
The former is my own son, the latter is Matthew* – whose parents have shared their story of how their sweet boy got caught up with the Southside Gang.
This week, when a clap of thunder shook our house and sent both my children running upstairs to our room, it was Matthew I thought of.
Where was he? And how did he get there?
They were the same questions running through his own mother’s head.
Missing for almost a week, Rachel* desperately messaged her son in the small hours of that stormy night, begging him not to speed in any cars in those wet and wild conditions.
Thankfully, Matthew is – so far – safe.
And while I simply can’t imagine my own son following Matthew’s path, that’s precisely what his parents thought as well.
But, according to police, in this season of booming child crime, more than 50 per cent of those kids involved come from so-called “good” families.
While many online commenters of youth crime call for parents to be fined or even sterilised, most of these mums and dads are doing and have been doing all they can to help their children change. They are heartbroken and ashamed and we need to reach out, not kick them when they are down.
The truth is that try as we might to instil values, morals and ethics in our kids, the siren call of social media can be too strong to ignore.
It’s no longer a matter of directing your children to the “right school” or the “right crowd”, they have the worst of the worst waiting to play in their pocket.
But what do we do as parents? We can take away phones, or simply not provide them, but every child has access to technology as a requirement of school – and social media is, literally, freely available.
While cyber safety experts warn of paedophiles lurking in the dark corners of the internet, or scammers waiting to steal their information, the other real danger is these peer groups waiting to rob their innocence.
Scroll through some of the Southside Gang accounts … you’ll see the followers have thousands of followers of their own. These baby-faced crims are hugely popular among their peers, and the echo chamber that is social media just feeds their notoriety – and their drive to commit crime.
And the kids who follow them are just young and stupid – as is almost every 12 and 13-year-old.
It’s not an age known for its maturity and wisdom, yet we hand these tweens and teens devices that open doors to worlds they are not ready for.
We can’t remove the technology, but we can remove the stupid.
We need to educate our children on the realities of this virtual world. The fact is that every post they make is part of their real-life CV, those posts and comments live forever online – and can come back to bite them any time in the future.
Paedophiles and scammers
are real, but the “glamorous” lives posted by peers are not. Some of this seems so glaringly obvious to us adults and parents, but try to see it through a 12-year-old’s eyes and it’s not so easy to focus.
We need our schools to initiate not once-a-year or once-a-term cyber safety awareness, but weekly discussions in the classroom about what’s happening online. Teachers and parents, create a fake account and get out there and open your eyes to what is really happening.
As for Instagram and other social media companies … shame on you. Families and children are suffering yet you ignore their pleas for help.
I simply cannot understand how posts flagged for featuring children with weapons, children behind the wheel of a stolen car, children doing drugs are allowed to exist. Pull the posts and pull the accounts.
Because someone has to
help these desperate parents.
Matthew’s own mum and dad have been left with nowhere to turn. Failed by tech companies, failed by the justice system, they were all but ignored by their own local politicians. (A big shoutout here to Burleigh MP Michael Hart, who is not even their local member, who asked me to share their story in order to help.)
This problem is too big for two parents to solve. It’s going to take the whole community. Parents, teachers, schools, police, politicians … we have to be actively engaged to get our kids disengaged from the sins of social media.
It seems it’s only a small step for anti-social behaviour to travel from behind the screens to on the streets.
As for Instagram and other social media companies … shame on you