Google Ideas, the search giant’s “think/do tank,” recently funded a study about Internet usage among gang members. Fast Company reports on the results, and surprise, surprise: Rather than committing complicated cyber crimes or crowd-funding gun purchases, their main activities involve “self-promotion and braggadocio.” Primarily by posting YouTube videos.
Gang members, they’re online narcissts like everybody else!
Fast Company says:
Social networking sites are widely used for self-promotion. The researchers found that 46% of the gang members polled reported posting gang-related videos online, and that 56% reported watching gang-related videos online.
A quarter of respondents also copped to Googling the names of rival gangs to “see what shows up.”
In addition, 11 percent said said they used the Internet for “organizing activities,” and 19 percent claimed their gang had some sort of website. Most of the respondents, however, said they keep the incriminating stuff offline: “[We] don’t talk about it [gang business] because the police is on there,” one interviewee informed researchers.
Maybe they should have googled whether YouTube videos are admissible in court.