{"id":37841,"date":"2016-03-15T15:14:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T20:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=37841"},"modified":"2016-03-15T15:14:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T20:14:07","slug":"police-and-colleges-assess-the-the-emoji-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/police-and-colleges-assess-the-the-emoji-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Police and colleges assess the the emoji threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colin Mo <\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to the concept of \u201cemoji\u201d – ideograms and smileys used in electronic messaging and internet web pages – courts and law enforcement tend to take it very seriously<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recently, a 12-year-old girl was arrested for using emojis on a public Instagram post<\/a>, prompting her school to call in law enforcement. In her public Instagram post, she included the emojis<\/a> for a gun, a bomb, and a knife, and the word \u201ckilling. \u201cCases are beginning to emerge in which police charge people \u2014 often kids \u2014 for using emoji in ways that they deem threatening,\u201d according to a Time article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For many millennials, cases like this are becoming a free speech issue, in which the lines are blurred and not clear-cut. Those in college have reason to be concerned what their college administrations take into consideration when viewing their public social media posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d be curious to know how much evidence or what type of evidence they would need to actually investigate something because there are problems with both sides of the coin,\u201d said Eric Millington, an undergraduate at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n

Similar questions have been raised by other students, such as:<\/p>\n

– If someone hacked my account and posted a terrible message, what happens?<\/p>\n

– What if it\u2019s a problem of generation gap, and that millennials do not consider the message threatening?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular issue regarding emojis has not come up,\u201d said Alan Cubbage, Vice President for University Relations at Northwestern University. \u201c[But] Northwestern has procedures in place for dealing with messages that may appear to be threatening. If such a potential threat is discovered, members of the administration, including university police, student affairs (if it involves a student), human resources (if it involves a staff member), and others evaluate the threat and determine the appropriate response.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, the police would determine if a crime was committed, probably in consultation with school district officials, parents and, ultimately, the State’s Attorney\u2019s Office,\u201d said Perry Polinski, the communications coordinator for the Evanston Police Department. \u201cIt would depend on the context of the message that such symbols are contained in.”<\/p>\n

Polinski compared the issue to \u201ccyber banging.\u201d Cyber banging<\/a> is when gang members taunt or disrespect rival gang members with postings and\/or videos via social media.\u00a0 Though the potential to escalate into violence is more likely with cyber banging, the use of\u00a0 symbols\/emoji might lead to gang \u201ctagging\u201d (graffiti) to mark territory,” he noted.<\/p>\n

In the end, the Evanston Police would like to remind the public: Like so many things in this day and age in which technology and social media are concerned, it is extremely convenient and effortless to thoughtlessly tap a couple of keys and hit the send button \u201con the fly\u201d without considering the consequences.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Screenshot of emoji used in a popular messaging app, WeChat. (Colin Mo\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Colin Mo When it comes to the concept of \u201cemoji\u201d – ideograms and smileys used in electronic messaging and internet web pages – courts and law enforcement tend to take it very seriously. Recently, a 12-year-old girl was arrested for using emojis on a public Instagram post, prompting her school to call in law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":37873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,585],"tags":[2356,2357,2355,742],"class_list":["post-37841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-winter-2016","tag-colleges","tag-cyber-banging","tag-emojis","tag-police"],"yoast_head":"\nPolice and colleges assess the the emoji threat - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/police-and-colleges-assess-the-the-emoji-threat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police and colleges assess the the emoji threat - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Colin Mo When it comes to the concept of \u201cemoji\u201d – ideograms and smileys used in electronic messaging and internet web pages – courts and law enforcement tend to take it very seriously. 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