Website launched to tackle knife crime ‘does not speak to young people’
Dr Tony Bates, founding director of Headstrong, a mental health support network for young people, said he was surprised to see that Headstrong was listed as a link to How Big Do You Feel, launched by the Garda and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern earlier this year. He said he had last night requested his organisation be removed as an affiliate to it, as it was “not very helpful” and naive.
“It is a very empty website and doesn’t seem to do anything or give any information. Telling a young person to go to the Garda if they see someone with a knife is not going to happen. This is not youth-friendly.”
The Government’s on-line campaign aims to inform and educate through a series of online and community initiatives. To date, however, it has garnered virtually no interest on the social networking sites it has set up.
The campaign’s Facebook site only has 37 members.
On Bebo, the campaign has 256 friends and just four comments from the public, while popular new social network site Twitter reports a meagre 21 ‘followers’.
There is no information on any site regarding community meetings or initiatives.
At the time of its launch, Gardaí announced 12 roadshow meetings around the country, schools meetings in all parts of the country led by community gardaí, and editorial campaigns in national, regional and local media to coincide with the rollout of the roadshows.
According to the Department of Justice, responsibility for the campaign lies solely with Garda.
Gardaí last night said six road show meetings had taken place in schools around the country, featuring contributions from community gardaí and prominent sporting role models.
In relation to the online campaign, gardaí said there had been several hundred thousand online ad views, tens of thousands of website and Bebo page visits.
Some 35,000 leaflets that outline the facts associated with knives and knife crime had been distributed to every Garda station in the country, gardaí said.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said a surge in knife crime in recent years required a multi-faceted response by the Government, focusing not only on legislation but also on increasing the number of community gardaí above an “abysmal” 5%, and helping communities at the coalface through public meetings and information sessions.
“We know that one third of knife crime offenders are young men under 20 and those who have daily contact with this peer group must be aware of what to look out for and how to respond. In this context, parents and teachers are a key audience. The Government’s awareness campaign seems to be meeting a disappointing response, particularly in terms of the interest on Bebo, Facebook and Twitter. In this case it should be examined to see if its effectiveness can be improved,” he said.
Following a spate of stabbings in recent weeks, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said he “would have liked” the awareness campaign to be more successful.
