Social Media Safety

731 Words2 Pages

When one reflects on the past 25 or so years, no invention or innovation created during this time period seems to be anywhere near as revolutionary as the Internet and social media. Indeed, both the Internet and social media have, without a doubt, absolutely transformed the World as a whole, becoming deeply ingrained and integral in the ways of society and its daily runnings. With every year that passes, the Internet and social media become more advanced and complex, bringing innovation to many different areas such as the worlds of finance, crowdfunding and healthcare. The world of crime and safety prove to be no exception to this: social media has brought along a multitude of new and creative ways to commit crimes and decrease general safety. …show more content…

Since its inception, social media has played a close and extremely helpful role in crime fighting as it offers a unique perspective on potential suspects – with a little digging, information found on social media is sometimes enough to completely solve a crime, or prove an individual guilty beyond all doubt. However, unexpected by most, it has gone above and beyond its aspect of crime fighting – although that aspect remains strong as ever today – by providing novel solutions and endless opportunities for social safety. Indeed, social media has proven to contain several – what has proven to be quintessential – tools in regards to social safety, crime fighting and crime prevention. While there are certainly several ethical issues arise from the connection between social media and social safety, there is certainly an extremely bright future in terms of what the world can expect from the powerful tools social media will provide us for social safety, crime fighting and crime …show more content…

According to a 2013 social media survey organized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, “96 percent of police departments use social media in some capacity, more than 80 percent say it has helped them solve crimes, and 73 percent of agencies said it helped improve police-community relationships in their jurisdiction” (McDuffee, 2014). Indeed, while most businesses cannot afford to ignore social media should they intend to flourish, police departments prove to be absolutely no exception to this – in fact, ignoring it would likely prove to be extremely detrimental. Most people do not recognize the true power, importance and impact of social media in our society – they tend to write it off as a prevalent but non-important trend the teenagers of the world are currently obsessed with. Police departments, however, do no such thing and rather treat it as an extremely valuable resource, and the results show: the same survey conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police revealed “more than 80 percent [of police departments] say [social media] has helped them solve crimes, and 73 percent of agencies said it helped improve police-community relationships in their jurisdiction” (McDuffee, 2014). These statistics make perfect sense; as most of our world has shifted in some capacity to the virtual reality, it makes sense that a portion of crimes have also

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