Youth website combats online feuding

POPULAR youth-driven website Bebo says it will use its experience of Northern Irish sectarianism to combat Limerick teenagers going online to stoke the city’s violent family feuds.

Yesterday it shut down a number of web-pages belonging to a handful of teenagers styling themselves as gun-toting drug dealers.

Rival youngsters from the areas of Weston, Moyross and the Island Field borrowed from America’s black gangster culture to antagonise divisions linked to the city’s feuds.

Bebo’s chief safety officer Rachel O’Connell said the offending sites had been deleted and believes more can be done.

“We always act speedily when we get complaints but I don’t believe it is enough just to delete accounts.

“We like to work with the communities involved to explore the best ways of tackling the problem and we try to get involved in finding a solution,” she said.

She offered to travel to Limerick to see how it can modify its security systems so the site can raise the alarm when certain slang words are used.

This has already been put to use to curb teenagers using the site to ratchet up sectarian animosity in the North where specified words are automatically flagged.

Ms O’Connell said in this regard Bebo is a unique opportunity to tap into the minds of young people.

Limerick City councillor Noreen Ryan welcomed the action, saying “Bebo has a responsibility to teenagers who use the service and it is my view that Bebo should not allow the site be used to promote or indeed advocate gun crime,” Ms Ryan said.