Quarter of all serious youth offences start on social media

CHILDREN use social media to plan crime in a quarter of all violent and sexual offences committed by them, says the probation service watchdog.

Crimes are plotted by the young on smartphones, tablets and computers rather than on the street. Incidents may start online before escalating dramatically into physical assaults, or occur when they get hold of indecent images they have pressurised victims into uploading.

They use less well-known platforms for intimidation, for recruiting members into gangs and for issuing challenges to other groups.

HM Inspectorate of Probation examined 115 cases where youths had committed violent, sexual or other offences. In a quarter of those, the perpetrators’ use of social media was “directly related” to the crime committed.

The report said social media was the catalyst for some of the most serious and violent offences. Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation, said: “This is new behaviour. Many of these young people shun Facebook and other common applications in favour of lesser known and, therefore, more private media. We found offence scenarios inconceivable just a few years ago, with social media used to both incite and plan crime.”

Dame Glenys said youth workers needed more information to help them “catch up” with those whose offending is linked to and fuelled by social media.

She added there was a “strong case” for monitoring the output of young people who posed a risk.

The report contained a glossary of texting “codes” for youth offending teams to be aware of, including POS (parents over shoulder), NIFOC (nude in front of the computer) and TDTM (talk dirty to me).