Britain's top police officer blames social media for soar in knife crime

Britain’s top police officer has blamed social media for the soaring rate of knife crime in the UK, particularly among children.

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said websites and mobile apps such as YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram were partially to blame for the bloodshed.

Speaking to the Times after 13 Londoners were killed in two weeks this month, Ms Dick blamed the internet for helping trivial disputes to escalate into violence “within minutes” as rivals goad each other.

“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 said.

Last August, 15-year-old Jermaine Goupall was knifed to death in Thornton Heath in the climax of a feud between rival gangs posting mocking videos on YouTube.

So far this year, 29 people have been knifed to death just in London and fatal stabbings in England and Wales are at their highest levels since 2010-2011.

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Ms Dick said insults or threats online “makes [violence] faster, it makes it harder for people to cool down. I’m sure it does rev people up”.

She compared the speed at which youths with no previous, or very limited, criminal record can become killers to the way some Islamic extremists can become radicalised in a matter of days.

Ms Dick said drug dealing and absent fathers were also a challenge, but emphasised “it is absolutely as much about socioeconomic factors as anything else”.