Segment 1

The podcast episode discusses how social media has changed crime, making it no longer limited to physical spaces. It explores how social media influences real-world crimes like grooming, kidnapping, and violence. The main argument is that social media is now a space where criminal behavior can develop and spread. The episode delves into criminological theories such as routine activity theory and self-control theory to explain how social media can facilitate criminal activities. It emphasizes that what happens online can impact real-world events. Welcome to Turing Trolls, the podcast where we look at crime, society and the digital world we live in every day. My name is Brenda Rios-Snow and today's episode and other episode is called A Crime Behind a Click. Before we begin, I'd like to mention I am a little bit sick, but I'm getting better, I promise. And it's currently 6am in the city of Bristol, UK, so I am, it's very, very loud outside. So hopefully that doesn't distract me and hopefully my phone stays like that this time. So I do apologise in advance also for any pronunciation differences compared to the United States as well. But I am excited to talk about this topic because social media is something almost everyone uses and it has changed the way we understand crime itself. And when most people think about social media, they think about entertainment, they think about TikTok videos, Instagram posts, Snapchat messages, Facebook updates, things like group chats, memes or like influencers. And for a lot of people, social media just feels normal, it feels casual, it feels like something you use without thinking too deeply about. But social media has also changed the way crime happens. Crime is no longer limited to the streets, the homes, schools, stores or in like physical communities. Now crime can begin with a message, a post, a live stream, a comment section, a private chat or like an online community. So the main question for this episode is how has social media changed crime and why are people of all ages vulnerable to online criminal activity? And this episode is not just about the scams or cyber bullying. Those are like important issues but this podcast will go deeper. We are going to look at cases where online spaces influence real world crimes including like grooming, kidnapping, violence, murder, school threats or radicalization. And the main argument of this episode itself is that social media is not like just a communication tool anymore. It has become a space where criminal behavior can develop, spread or sometimes move into the real world. And social media can connect offenders to victims and cause risky behavior enforced by the ideas and gifts of like an audience. And to understand this I looked up and researched a lot of criminological theories that we mentioned in class. And those were like routine, activity theory and the self-control theory. So the routine theory, activity theory says crime is more likely to happen when three things come together. It motivates offenders, suitable target and the lack of capable guardianship. So on social media that can happen very easily. A motivated offender may be looking for someone to exploit, threaten, manipulate or harm. And a suitable target may be someone vulnerable, isolated, young, emotionally distressed or unaware of the danger. And a lack of capable guardianship can happen when private messages, anonymous accounts, hidden online communities or like weak platform monitoring. And these allow harmful behavior to like just continue on in general. And the second theory was the self-control theory. This is, it argues that people with lower self-control may act impulsively, take risks and control more on, like focus more on immediate rewards than long-term consequences. So social media can intensify this because the platforms can reward instant reactions. This involves likes, views, comments, attention and status. And that can all make the risky behavior feel rewarding at the moment. I'll also be like briefly connecting other theories where they fit, like social learning theory and labeling theory. So both of those are like social learning theory helps explain how people may learn behaviors by watching others online. If violent, harmful or criminal behavior is rewarded for attention, people may copy it. So labeling theory helps explain how social media can attach identities to people. So once someone is labeled online as a victim, offender, criminal, monster, celebrity or a symbol, that label can spread quickly and become part of the story. So throughout this episode, I want you to think about one idea. The online world and the real world are not separate anymore. What happens online can shape what happens offline. So let's begin with one of the clearest examples of how an online interaction can become a real world victimization, like online grooming and connecting.