Web Giants Driving Violence
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- May 01, 2018
Tragic incidents at K-12 schools
are solidly in the crosshairs
of law enforcement, politicians
and to some extent, the
NRA. It is on everyone’s mind
and everyone has an opinion of what can be
done, should be done and must be accomplished
to protect students.
I stand firmly behind the Second Amendment
of the Constitution of the United States.
Those persons wanting to rewrite this document
would first have to prove to me that they
have more wisdom and knowledge than the
Founding Fathers before this is repealed.
In agreement with the idea that “stupid”
people shouldn’t have guns, a plan must be
established whereby a weapon would not fall
into the hands of a violent person.
Here’s another take on violence from the
Metropolitan Police commissioner in London,
Cressida Dick. She says that “social
media sites are driving children to commit
violence and murders.” She said often trivial
disputes between young people were escalating
into murder and stabbings at unprecedented
rates in the London Metro area.
The commissioner, quoted in the March
31 issue of The Times in London said that
children are committing instant crimes because
of social media. She said that a febrile
online atmosphere was among the factors responsible
for rising knife crime; but she also
blames drug dealing, broken families and
socio-economics. The commissioner is talking
about violence with a knife. How bad can
that be? Violence is on the increase across the
United Kingdom, the commissioner said. In
fact, she reported on March 30 that a 36-
year old woman became the tenth person to
be stabbed to death in London in the previous
17 days. Fatal stabbings in England and
Wales are at the highest levels since 2010.
There have been 215 homicides involving a
knife or other sharp instrument from January
to March 2018.
Perhaps it is time to take a look at a possible
root cause, social media, which Commissioner
Dick said that companies have been
criticized for their response to prolific terrorist
propaganda and online pedophile material.
The content needs to be taken down
because, she says, it stokes violence.
Google, the owner of You-Tube, and
Facebook have both been criticized for failure
to take down extremist material. On
the day of this writing, April 3, an active
shooter situation is happening at YouTube
headquarters in California. The truth is, that
gangs posture on social media, including rap
videos in which they goaded rival gangs and
glamorized violence.
“It [social media] makes violence faster,
it makes it harder for people to cool down,”
the commissioner said. “I’m sure it does rev
people up.”
I don’t own a gun, and don’t plan to buy
one any time soon, but I share the commissioner’s
opinion that most of today’s violence
stems from a root cause that can be found at
home, or I should say, the lack of a proper
home life and learning environment. Just as
social media has its place for good, there are
many dark and down sides to getting revved
up so quickly over an ignorant social post.
I’m not against social media, but I implore
the Web Giants to be more selective over
what is available to the public.
This article originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of Security Today.