Social networking brings growing policing problems says Minister

Thu, 16 Feb 2012

The increasing use of social networking sites like Facebook brings with it growing policing problems.

That's according to the Home Affairs Minister.

In the House of Keys, Juan Watterson was asked how many reports of Facebook abuse have been received by Manx police.

He says records aren't kept for specific social networking sites but says there is evidence to show that they're being used to threaten, harass and alarm people, and facilitate crimes like drug trafficking.

There have been cases on the Island where people have been prosecuted for criminal use of Facebook.

However, Mr Watterson says these problems don't necessarily offset the benefits of social networking, but they do present challenges which are likely to grown in scale, complexity and intensity in future.