Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has attributed the increased use of social media amongst young people for the alarming rise in the rate of murders and stabbings. Dick has said that minor disputes between youths were escalating rapidly online and resulting in serious offline attacks. Chief social media platform culprits are YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram which facilitate rapid communication between peers.

She told The Times that the goading of rivals online via message boards and video sites was fuelling this violence saying that it speed up the rate at which disputes gathered pace and that it “revs people up,” making it harder to cool down and think rationally. Dick called for social media websites to do more by removing content that incites violence saying: “There’s definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to ‘fight’ very quickly.”

She also blamed social media for glamorising violence and gang culture, which could lead vulnerable young people to think it was admirable to be talking about and committing violent acts. However, she did not rest the blame solely on social media, factors such as drug-dealing, absent fathers and socio-economic were also key causes of the escalation.

Stabbings at an All-Time High

Recently London’s murder rate has overtaken New York’s. As the big apple’s rate declined, the UK’s capital saw a marked rise. London experiences more knife crime than any other part of the UK and since March 17th the Police have launched 10 murder investigations. Compared to the previous 12 months, knife crime offences in England and Wales have increased 21% in the year ending September 2017. London’s 31st victim of knife crime was a 20-year-old man who died last Sunday after being attacked after leaving a pub.

While social media may be a factor in this rise, it would seem there are much wider issues at play such as background and poverty. However, in Scotland it was recently reported that cybercrime has contributed significantly to the overall increase in sex crimes in Scotland with online interaction often acting a precursor to assault. Recently, the UK government spent £1.35 million on a social media advertising campaign across multiple digital channels to educate young people about the dangers associated with carrying a knife. The series was targeted at 10-21-year olds and used real life knife crime stories to illustrate their point. The government has also established a #knifefree website to help tackle the problem.