Police To Crack Down On Facebook Bullies

Police in Reading will start sending warning messages to Facebook bullies and their parents, in a bid to curb social network-related crimes among school students.

The Thames Valley police force will be working with teenage volunteers in identifying and tracking down Facebook bullies. Starting today, the aim of the scheme is to make cyber offenders aware of their illegal actions, and potentially threaten them with prosecution for a public order offence.

“While we want them to realise how serious the matter is, we also want to avoid that and keep young people out of the criminal justice system if possible,” said PC Dave Thomas of Thames Valley Police.

“By alerting their parents to the problem, we are aiming to nip the problem in the bud and prevent it becoming something more serious,” he added.

Facebook ‘trolling’

The crackdown on Facebook bullies comes as cyber crime is reported to be on the rise. The crimes include an emerging cyber trend known as ‘trolling,’ where anonymous Internet users publish upsetting posts on online message boards in order to provoke outrage and distress.

Last year, 15-year-old Tom Mullaney reportedly committed suicide after being bullied on Facebook. Days later, his memorial page saw a posting under the name ‘Odette “Oph” Philly-Cross’ that read: “Why would you make an RIP page about someone that’s clearly a wimp?? That’s just embarrassing.”

Due to the rising concern over social network-related offences, police officers in the UK are to receive training on how to use Facebook and Twitter to catch people committing serious crimes.

“This programme is a vital part of the career pathway for detectives and the new training covers sensitive areas of policing where limited guidance existed previously,” said deputy chief constable Nick Gargan, acting head of the NPIA, in a statement to the Press Association.

Facebook crimes on the rise

Over the past five years, Facebook has been linked to over 100,000 crimes in the UK, according to high-ranking police officers in 16 forces, who responded to Freedom of Information requests from the Daily Mail.

Police stats reveal that the famous social-networking site is used by criminals to make threats, intimidate, bully and harass.

According to the report, callers have used Facebook to inform officers of various crimes and alleging wrongdoings, ranging from acts of terrorism and sudden deaths to missing pets and malicious messages.

Launched in February 2004, Facebook reached over 500 million active users in July 2010.