What role did social media play in the murder of 13-year-old Olly Stephens?
Thames Valley Police say Olly's story stands out because of the huge role social media played in the case. And they fear that the evidence of bullying, and violent videos featuring knives found on the killers' phones, is just "the tip of a very large iceberg".
On Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, our 13-year-old account was recommended content such as people showing off knives, knives for sale and posts glorifying violence "I still look for his feet in the morning at the end of the bed because they would hang over the end," Stuart says. Not seeing them there hits him every time.
"It's this secret world where you can do and say exactly what you want," Amanda says. "It was a world that we had no idea existed [and] that he was being attacked by it." Patterning is the humiliation of a young person which is filmed or photographed and then shared on social media. It's forwarded on and on, shared across different social media sites, multiplying the embarrassment for the victim.
The 13-year-old girl who agreed to do this knew Olly in real life, and had met the two boys involved online. Although they all lived locally, they met for the first time on the day of the murder. The evidence gathered by the police is just the information required to prosecute - but DCI Andy Howard fears they have only scratched the surface in this case. In his view, it's likely those involved were regularly exposed to violent content - and desensitised to it.
When we tested moderation, TikTok was the only social media site that removed a post we shared showing a knife. Tik Tok, however, did remove the post for violating its guidelines on dangerous acts - and Sam's account was warned that it was close to being suspended. That suggests it is possible to detect and remove this type of content shared by a profile under 18. We have now deactivated Sam's accounts.
I showed them several screen grabs from Sam's accounts, without exposing them to too much of the content we've been recommended. But the children weren't shocked by the results at all - and admitted they all see knives and violence regularly on their social media feeds."We get exposed more to people kind of showing [them] off," Poppy explains, talking about the image people her age try to portray mainly on Instagram, as well as Snapchat.
YouTube says it has "strict existing policies in place to ensure that our platform is not used to incite violence".
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