Speech to E-Society 2015, Madeira, Portugal.

1. Jonathan Bishop
Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems
The misrepresentation of
Digital Teens as Trolls

2. Sean Duffy: A taster comparison
Sean Duffy Family of Natasha McBryde

3. Odd Ones Out Round
Stella Creasy John NimmoPeter Nunn
Caroline
Criado-Perez
Two of these have a sexist policy of having less men on benknotes
and three went to jail for challenging them.
Who are the sexists and who are the convicts?
Isabella
Sorley

4. Three Case Studies we will explore
Case Study 1
Former Swansea
University Student,
Liam Stacey
The Digital
Classroom of
Tomorrow Project
Case Study 2
Benefit Claimant,
Reece Messer
The Emotivate
Project
Case Study 3
Marginalised youth,
Adam Lanza
The Free Digital
Project

5. Case Study 1: Liam Stacy
• Liam Stacey was a Swansea University Student
• He posted racist remarks to other Twitter users when the
challenged him for mocking the cardia arrest of footballer, Fabrice
Muamba
• I was interviewed by BBC Radio Wales on the topic:

6. Liam Stacey: Daily Mirror
• Liam Stacey is pictured in cuffs
with his head down to reflect
shame
• The headline is in capitals with
words like “SICK”
• Fabrice Muamba pictured with
parner in a supportive way
• Fans are pictured supporting
Muamba

7. Liam Stacey: Daily Express
• Liam Stacey is pictured in cuffs
with his head down to reflect
shame as in the Daily Mirror.
• The headline is in soft font
saying “sobbing student” to
reflect vulnerabily and vile is in
single-qutes to suggest it might
not be.
• Fabrice Muamba pictured with
parner in a happy and jolly way
to suggest no harm was done.

8. Case Study 1: What 'they' said…
Politicians
“If racist tweets are illegal, why
wasn't the Labour MP for Hackney
North and Stoke Newington and
Shadow Minister for Public Health
Diane Abbott jailed or at least
sacked when she Tweeted ''White
people love playing divide and
rule'’?”
“Double standards, eh?”
- From the Musing of a Young
Conservative Blog
Journalists
“So, I can understand why people
were pleased to see Liam Stacey, the
student who posted a nasty Twitter
comment about Fabrice Muamba and
replied in racist language to those
who criticised him, go to prison for it.
I can see why newspaper columnists
have spent the last week cheering the
sentence and the lost appeal.”
“When people cheer Liam Stacey's
jailing without knowing exactly what
he did, or even what he's officially
guilty of, I fear that we are halfway
there already.”
- Victoria Coren
Feminists
“This is why the offences
committed in the Ched Evans
case are worse, in my view, than
Liam Stacey’s drunken abuse of
Fabrice Muamba. I’m not in
favour of sending more people to
prison but I’d like to see heavier
penalties for naming rape
victims, perhaps in the form of
community service with
organisations that help victims
of sexual violence. This “naming
and shaming” of women who say
they’ve been raped is a form of
terrorism, and it has to stop.”
- Joan Smith

9. What the data says…
Country NEETs Impressions Clicks
Productivity
(USDPer
Person)
Education Intelligence No Rooms
Spain 51.6 12.38 0.011 72.04 4.37 104.04 4.57
Portugal 38.5 14.37 0.020 39.93 3.70 101.59 4.30
Poland 27 11.89 0.010 27.66 4.11 105.74 3.56
Hungary 25.9 17.43 0.000 27.29 4.33 105.31 0.38
France 25.1 6.78 0.000 88.83 4.35 106.27 3.68
United
Kingdom
20.6 8.15 0.016 73.64 4.08 106.27 4.61
United States 16.1 3.25 0.003 102.50 4.70 106.16 4.65
Canada 13.8 6.80 0.023 97.65 4.64 106.06 1.08
Mexico 9.6 18.73 0.031 23.68 3.63 99.36 3.88
Korea 8.8 22.34 0.027 41.28 4.67 105.31 2.97
Germany 8.1 6.44 0.000 75.75 4.60 106.16 4.00
Switzerland 7.9 4.89 0.000 135.83 4.36 106.16 4.32
Japan 6.9 6.67 0.006 94.23 4.42 106.27 3.91
A high
number of
NEETs is
associated
with high
numbers of
impressions,
meaning
advertisers
should be
targeting
Digital Teens.

10. What Digital Teens say…
“We want opportunity”
• “I like talking a lot and I just
like hanging out with my
friends like going to the
cinema or something or going
to my friends house. You know
just getting together
chatting.”
“We want understanding”
• “I think I picked it (the
Internet) up well, my old
secondary school didn’t really
have internet access […] I
don’t know the best search
engines to use, and how to
find what you want to find.
Definitely picked it up from
friends.”

11. What Digital Teens do…
• The Digital Classroom of Tomorrow
originally linked up two schools –
one Welsh speaking and one
English speaking.
• It tailors a learner’s device to
accommodate their diverse
interests and abilities.
• It is now widely adopted across
Europe as Classroom 2.0

12. Case Study 2: Reece Messer
• Reece Messer was a disadvantaged youth relying on state benefits
• When Tom Daley came 4th
in a diving competition at the Olympics,
Reece Messer posted a tweet saying he let his father down.
• I was interviewed on BBC WM 95.6 about the issue:

13. What they said…
Politician
“Young people who write about the
good things that have happened to
them can find that they are
attacked on the websites. The
example of Tom Daley comes to
mind, because of what happened
to him at the Olympics, when a
cheerful thing turned into
nastiness. […] there must be some
system in place, whether banning
trolls from using the websites,
legislation or whatever, to protect
young people and those using the
internet in an innocent fashion?”
- Jim Shannon MP
Journalist
“It is interesting that the man
arrested (for allegedly trolling
Caroline Criado-Perez and
Stella Creasy MP) is 32 years
old. All the other arrests and
convictions were of much
younger men. Reece Messer
(who trolled Tom Daley) was
only 17.”
- Robert Sharp
Feminist
“It is not clear if the alleged tweeter
was arrested for that disgusting taunt
about Daley’s father or for his other
threats. But regardless of the specifics
of this case, it raises wider and deeper
concerns about freedom of speech. The
boy was arrested under the Malicious
Communications Act 1988. Did you
know we had such an Act? No, neither
did I. Nor did I have any idea that its
provisions are so wide.”
- Melanie Phillips

14. What the data says…
British Region
Incidentsof
Electronic
Message
Faults
Internet ac-
cessrate
Adjusted
TrollingIn-
cidents
Actual
NEETs
Calculated
TOYGs
Wales 135 0.78 173.08 0.238 366.16
Scotland 475 0.83 572.29 0.183 281.54
South East 690 0.87 793.1 0.155 238.46
Totals 13000 0.82 1538.47 0.192 886.16
The data shows that in order for those Digital Teens who are not in
education, employment or training to be responsible for all trolling
offences there would need to be more than double the number of
NEETs than there already is.

15. What Digital Teens say…
“Things must be relevant”
• “It’s (the Internet) just going to
keep getting bigger because now
you’ve got the sites that offer
you free web page anybody who
can be bothered can get their
own free website, or even more
than one. So it’s just going to
keep getting bigger. And as it
keeps getting bigger it’s going to
get more cluttered so it’ll make
it harder to get what you want.”
“Recognise our aspirations”
• “As everything can be paid for
by your parents anymore.”
• “Yeah I think so, cause
internet‘s not been around a
long time has it? So the old
Granny‘s they won‘t use it,
they‘re used to type-writers
and things like that.”

16. What Digital Teens do…
• Eleven young people from Pontypridd and
Llantwit Fardre in Wales took part in the
Emotivate Project.
• They used the Internet and Photoshop to
design collages about their ideas of the
area’s past and what they would like it to
be like in the future
• An artist in residence then marked up
these onto boards which the young people
then painted
• The boards were installed in an underpass
in Treforest that was previously shabby.

17. Case Study 3: Adam Lanza
• Adam Lanza was a youth that showed autism like symptoms. He
was bullied by others for being different to the point that he
snapped leading to him ‘going postal’ through school shootings.
• Trolls then jumped on the bandwagon following the news breaking
• I was interviewed on BBC Radio Manchester about the issue:

18. What they said…
Politicians
“Very often these young
men have an almost
hypnotic involvement in
some form of violence in
our entertainment
culture – particularly
violent video games
[…]And then they obtain
guns and become not
just troubled young men
but mass”murderers.”
- Senator Joe Lieberman,
Journalists
“In the months before the
killing, Adam was left alone in
his room. Black garbage bags
covered the windows to keep out
the light. He spend hours playing
violent first-person video games,
where he held a gun in his hand,
shooting his way through human
after human. He had cut off
those closest to him, his father,
brother, and in the final months,
his mother, Nancy Lanza.”
- Matthew Lysiak
Feminists
“Adam Lanza had a Master
47/11 […] frequently
associated with violence
against women.”
“Lanza let a message on
his computer stating how
much he hated women”
- Pamela Lillian Valemont

19. What the data says…
Percentage of NEETs (high 51.6 Spain, low 6.9)

20. What Digital Teens say…
“We should have choice”
• “If I’m looking for something I
just type it in .com and usually,
nine times out of ten, there’s
actually a website for it.”
• “I‘ll have lots of homework to
do, and if that‘s computer work,
I‘ll have MSN on at the same
time, and then I can be doing my
homework and talking to my
friends.”
“We want free expression”
• “I think I can type very fast (well
my friends say I can) and it
allows me to get things done
quicker, like homework or essays”
• “Like if it’s someone you haven’t
seen for ages, you don’t really
want to ring them up. You want
to just email the person and see
if they reply back to you to see if
they still want to keep in touch
with you. It can be awkward on
the phone.”

21. What Digital Teens do…
• The Free Digital Project gives young
and disabled people the opportunity
to develop skills to live and work
independently.
• Young people who might not
otherwise be able to work in the IT
industry get the chance to, in many
cases leading to self-employment.

22. What you can do…
To Politicians
Visit writetothem.com
and ask a UK Member of
Parliament to change
Visit europa.eu to find a
Euro MP to lobby
Ask prospective UK MPs
what they will do:
www.yournextmp.co.uk
To Journalists
Has a UK journalist been
ageist by perpetuating false
stereotypes about young
people?
Complain to:
https://www.ipso.co.uk/IPS
O/makeacomplaint.html
To Feminists
Seen a Feminist act sexist
or ageist, towards for
instance young men, on a
BBC programme? Complain
to:
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

23. Any Questions?
• Digital Teens
• NEETs
• Politicians
• Feminists
• Journalists

24. Further reading
1. Bishop, J.