Police visited an 11-year-old’s home after her school complained about a Facebook group she set up criticising her headmistress.OUTRAGE! Free speech! State interference! Waste of valuable police time!
Oh, wait. Maybe not that last one...
Her parents Andrew and Joy Bagguley said they feared one of their daughters had been involved in an accident when they saw the Police Community Support Officer on their doorstep.So, not a real police officer at all. Hmmm, maybe this case doesn't deserve those screaming 'MAIL' headlines?
The group, called Hate Mrs Frost, attracted 16 members before it was taken down by her parents when the school then attended by both the girls – Park Hall Primary in Stoke-on-Trent – told them about it.Now, I'm not a BookFace user, but I guess 16 members isn't all that hard to come by? And the parents - rightly - took it down. So, why the fuss?
The following week a PCSO knocked at their door to advise that Leah, who was a prefect at the school, was too young to be on the site – which has a minimum age limit of 13.Clearly, the place is a paradise with no known crime to speak of, so the authorities have nothing better to do that enforce the EULA of social media sites...
The couple, who also have a 13-year-old daughter, admit Leah was wrong to set up the page, but said it would never have been posted if the school had properly dealt with the boy who they claim threatened to stab Libby.Too busy informing the state apparatus when they see something they don't like on the Internet, clearly. Or indulging in a little character assassination when cornered by the media:
The boy was admonished by a learning mentor, but they say the school informed his parents only when pushed to do so.
A spokesman for Park Hall said: ‘Mr Bagguley’s complaints have been exhaustively investigated on numerous occasions.’Translation: 'Oh, these people again..? They're a damned nuisance, don't you know? We're too busy for all this...'
Police said the visit in April followed a complaint to the force by the school.Because these days, if a complaint is made, no matter how frivolous, the police are duty-bound to 'do something about it'...
Mrs Bagguley, 46, who trains nurses at Keele University, said: ‘They're treating an 11-year-old girl like an adult carrying out a hate crime.Yes, it's the technology, clearly. Let's blame that.
‘It was a silly mistake that children used to write on their notebook, but it's the technology we have these days.’
It's not the fault of an educational system that seems to be run by squabbling children, rather than for them. It's not the fault of parents who run to the media as soon as something doesn't go their way. It's not the fault of a police service so debased it has to react to every little crisis and call as if it were a solvable social problem.
Clearly, it's the technology. It's advanced, you see. Whereas we've stagnated.
Since when is it the job of the police, ersatz or proper ones, to enforce the Ts and Cs of a website? Even if they really, genuinely had solved every crime and complaint for the last 40 years and were literally working back through open cases that had illuminated lettering in the corners of the pages it's not their business. If kids are putting up iffy pics of each other then there might be something for the police to get involved with, but if it's no more than ticking a box to say she's an age she isn't it should be between Basefook, the user and the parents.
ReplyDeleteIts not often I have much sympathy with The Farce...especially of the 'plastic' variety but they are damned if they do and twice damned if they don't.
ReplyDeleteEveryone bemoans the death of 'Quiet Word' policing but when the police DO have a 'quiet word' (the pcso 'advised') with the parents then they get told that they should be out catching REAL criminals.
Of course it isn't the police's job to investigate such things.
I worked at a college where some students started a typical fecesbook 'Hate The Tutor' page about a certain lecturer.
ReplyDeleteOf course it was halted, but the thing was the students were right. The man was a prat of the first water.
Why am I paying for these bloody idiots to swagger around enforcing the rules of an American website?
ReplyDelete"Why am I paying for these bloody idiots to swagger around enforcing the rules of an American website?"
ReplyDeleteBecause someone you know was probably stoopid enough to vote Blair?
Strange how now NO ONE voted for him and they all had a jew hidden in the cellar...or something like that
The parents appear to be of the Two Wrong Make A Right Brigade. :/
ReplyDelete*wrongs
ReplyDelete"Since when is it the job of the police, ersatz or proper ones, to enforce the Ts and Cs of a website? "
ReplyDeleteSpot on! Don't they have anything better to do?
"Its not often I have much sympathy with The Farce...especially of the 'plastic' variety but they are damned if they do and twice damned if they don't."
Then they'd still be better off not doing these things that will bring them even more contempt in the eyes of the public.
"Strange how now NO ONE voted for him and they all had a jew hidden in the cellar...or something like that"
I can hold my head up with pride. I certainly never did!
I presume the fookface material won't appear in any Ofstead evaluation of the school?
ReplyDeleteWhere's MTG and EV? This is a slightly anti-police story....
ReplyDeleteIf someone complains we have to take some action,that's the rules set by the govt not us.
I don't think a smiling PCSO giving a friendly warning to an 11 year old is akin to Nazi Germany do you?
I await to see this family in the local newspaper,arms crossed ,looking angry,fat parents with tattoos. Then in 3 or 4 years time the little facebook angel will be up the duff or committing crime as she hasn't been given any discipline.
Jaded
By the way in the paper today a senior officer in Bolton stated that they get TEN facebook related complaints every day.Multiply that across the country and see how much time is wasted on this rubbish.
ReplyDeleteJaded