Social networking media and crime

[Instructor name]

Abstract

The growth of social networking websites has been spurred by websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. These social networking websites are very popular among the masses and are used to meet online friends and family. However, these social networking websites are also used by criminals to brag about their crimes or to organize more crime. The law enforcement agencies are effectively using these websites to counter crime and to start their investigations of crimes. These websites act as an effective tool for crime investigation. However, there is privacy issues involved in surveillance of these websites by law enforcement agencies. Finally, the ability of these agencies to conduct investigations online is limited by the inability of gathering information as the owners of most of these businesses are located outside of the United States. Current law also disables defendants from gathering forensic evidence related to the crime.

Introduction

No other phenomenon in the digital world has seen as much growth as the spread of social networking today. Social networking has become the way of the people as they use these online social networks provided by websites to do all their social networking. These sites are logged on and used by millions of persons daily. They use these sites to engage in social networking, staying connected with friends and family, to generate new ideas, to start new businesses, and generally to contribute to a vibrant and open society (Petrashek, 2009).

The social networking phenomenon started with invent of websites such as Orkut. These websites provided a platform for people to meet online and to share content with others, mostly friends. Today, there are too many social networking websites being used by nearly everyone daily. The most popular ones include the Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. While Facebook and MySpace allow people to meet friends online, share content with them, and to find new friends, Twitter has a slightly different mode of social networking, as it is mobile devices-based. In addition, there are websites like YouTube and Flickr that allow users to upload and share their videos and photos.

The essence of social networking websites has been the fact that they connect millions of people together within seconds and allow them to share photos, videos and other content, email each other, chat in real time, and make new contacts, thereby blurring the boundaries of public and private.

However, this surge in social networking online has also been matched by criminals who have taken to use these websites to brag about their crimes, to organize crime, to meet and engage with other criminals, and to carry out organized mass crime. These crimes include pedophiles trying to catch children online, other sex offenders attempting to catch their prey, cyber bullying and associated crime, and more recently the use by rioters and looters to coordinate mobs and looting and killing sprees (Kaiser, 2011).

Social networking websites and crime

Tools used by law enforcement agencies

Social networking websites have appeared as a double-edged sword. While the perpetrators of ...