Of budgies and waterfights

Put yourself in the position of an overstretched police force.  You have fewer officers than you want patrolling more area than you can reasonably manage, and now you have the virtual highways and byways of cyberspace to patrol too. With handheld mobile devices playing a key role in the spread of recent UK riots, the police are turning their attention to social media as never before. The assistant Chief Constable of one Police Force has already said that “If people use social networking sites inappropriately to stimulate rumours we will do our best to track the individuals down and if they have committed offences under criminal law we will deal with them.”  This has already led to a slightly jittery response with one man held for questioning over arranging a water fight. If this proves to be as innocent as the person in question claims, charges will doubtless be dropped.

Interestingly, though, the same Police Force also put out a plea for help over a rather less pressing matter:

Isn’t this proof, though, of what many have been saying – namely that social media is morally neutral?  Social media itself is no more nor less of a threat than the printing press was when it was first invented. Humans are communicative creatures – it is part of the imago dei within us, surely? As long as we are here, we will constantly find quicker and more creative ways to communicate with each other, for good purposes and bad.

If we want to prove that this is social, and not antisocial media – it is up to those of us on it to prove its detractors wrong by the quality and content of what we put out on it.

Image: bidbudgie.co.uk