Sajid Javid’s knife crime social media ban is 'practically impossible to implement' warns expert

Sajid Javid announced plans to ban knife crime offenders and suspects from social media on Thursday – but this could be ‘impossible to implement’, a cyber-psychologist has said.

As part of a proposed government crackdown on the rising problem of knife crime and gang violence, the Home Secretary revealed a new series of measures to be able to control suspects carrying knives.

The Knife Crime Prevention Orders proposal would impose a variety of sanctions – such as bans on suspects using social media to create “threatening environments”.

However, speaking to Yahoo News UK, University of Northumbria Cyber-psychologist Dr Dawn Branley Bell said the Government’s proposed social media crackdown “would be practically impossible to implement.”

Dr Branley-Bell said: ‘Social media generally does not create new, unique behaviours, it just provides a different communication channel about behaviours and issues that already existed.

‘I suspect that there are many more influences on knife crime and gang behaviour than social media sites.”

The professor also highlighted that with all the different methods of accessing the internet, it will be impossible to enforce orders across every platform.

She said: ‘There are millions (if not more) new posts on popular social media sites every single minute of the day, it is not possible to moderate all of this content.

‘Yes certain ‘blocks’ can be put into place, e.g., automatically censoring certain words, or blocking certain user accounts, but these are not difficult to overcome.

‘I wonder in the meantime, if the effort required could be put to better use elsewhere.

‘For example, out on the streets where knife crime is actually occurring.’

Mr Javid’s proposals to bar ‘at risk’ people from using social media is already coming under fire from multiple critics.

Enver Solomon, CEO of Just for Kids Law, told the BBC the government was “resorting to harsh headline-grabbing initiatives that won’t work”.

He said: “This will do very little to address the underlying causes of knife crime and will push more young people into the criminal justice system.”

And Dr Branley-Bell told Yahoo News UK that the impact of policing social media – and banning those suspected of knife crime – may create new channels as the gangs are pushed ‘underground’.

She continued: ‘I agree that something needs to be done to tackle knife crime (and also negative material online) but this needs to be done in a way that is realistic and likely to result in the most positive impact.

‘Social media can often give the authorities an indication about when or where trouble is likely to occur.

‘If this information goes ‘underground’, this could potentially have an unexpected negative impact on our ability to react to situations.’

The new social media orders would target anyone in England and Wales aged 12 or over that is suspected of knife crime involvement – even if they are not caught with a weapon.

If a court is convinced that a police force’s intelligence is right, it can impose sanctions including strict curfews, preventing offenders from meeting with other suspected gang members and court orders to attend knife awareness workshops.

The new legislation is being debated at the House of Lords as part of the Government’s wider Offensive Weapons Bill.