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Facebook Being Used by Inmates to Taunt Victims of Crime
Several incidents have led the British government to request the removal of the profiles of 30 U.K. inmates from Facebook. The inmates had reportedly used Facebook to organize crime or taunt the victims and their families. British prisoners are banned from using social networking sites (access to the Internet is strictly supervised), however some have smuggled mobile phones or have been able to get friends on the outside to do it for them.
The Families United, a group that was founded by relatives of murder victims, has met with U.K. Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, to see if the government could introduce an Anti-Social Behavior Order (“e-ASBO”) to stop convicted killers from continuing this practice. The e-ASBO allows “magistrates to impose conditions on a person’s behaviour in a bid to stop low-level annoyances like graffiti, littering and loud music. They want new rules that would let authorities pass more information than is currently allowed to Websites about convicted criminals, so they can monitor them more effectively.”
Measures such as body scanners in all jails to stop the phone smuggling have already been introduced. Facebook also closed down the offenders’ sites and vowed it would close down any account which violated its rules.
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