Teen Criminals on Youtube and Facebook

How have teen criminals been caught on Facebook and YouTube?

There is a nineteen year old girl from Nebraska named Hannah Sabata who robbed a bank and stole a car. Hannah was caught because of a video that she posted on YouTube bragging about it. The bank has footage of Hannah robbing the bank and in the footage you can see what she looks like and the clothes that she is wearing. The police had enough evidence from the footage from the bank to send out a APB, which is an alert that goes to multiple police stations with a description of someone that they are looking for, for example their height, clothing, and eyes and hair color. The police did not have to use the APB to search very hard because the girl posted a video online and she was not at all trying to hide what she looked like or the crimes she committed. In the video she not only showed off the items and described what happened but also was wearing the same clothes that she robbed the bank in. She does not say a word in the video but instead holds up signs describing what she did. She told type of card in the video as well, which was a Pontiac Grand Am. The police got a search warrant and found the items she had stolen in her home. In the video she claimes to have committed the crimes because “the government stole her baby.” If Hannah had not posted a video on YouTube admitting her crimes in the clothing she committed them in, she might not have been caught.

Another example of a teen being caught because of what they post on social media is when teens broke into a mans home and threw a party and posted the pictures on Facebook. The owner of the house would not have even known that his house had been broken into while he was away on vacation, or that a party was thrown, if it had not been for the pictures on Facebook. The teens that broke in were classmates of the homeowners son and they knew that the family was going to be away on vacation and decided to break in and throw a party. The day after the party the teens came back and cleaned the house so well that the family did not even notice that a party had happened. The man was not friends with the teens who broke into his home but he was friends with his son and his son was friends with those teens. One day when his son was on Facebook he saw the pictures from the break in and commented on them. Because the dad was friends with the son on Facebook, when the son commented on the criminals picture it showed up on his Facebook newsfeed and that is how he found out what they had done. If the teen criminals had not bragged on Facebook, they would not have been caught. The teens could have also thought to delete the son of the homeowner before they posted the pictures on Facebook as well.

So What
My research topic is important to a specific audience that is teens. Especially teens who want to be successful in life in terms of getting a good job or getting into college. Colleges and jobs have rejected many teens due to their online documentation of events. The events that they documented and posted online are events that they should not have participated in in the first place. My research is important because it will cause teens to think twice about what they post online because they will realize that the information is seen by jobs, colleges, and police. Although my topic talks about teen criminals, the mentality that you need to think twice before you post thing online applies to all teens because things that they think are harmless could get them into a lot of trouble. My primary resources support my argument by providing examples of teen criminals who did not think twice before they posted things online. My argument is then further supported through my resources that talk about how the law and police use the internet and how things posted on the internet can be used as evidence against teens in court. My resources show that the internet is no longer some free-for-all that they can post whatever they want with no regards for the consequences, but instead it has become something that can affect them for the rest of their lives. It is important that I used the combination of both the stories of the teens and the sources of the legal information because I am able to say this is what these teens did and this is why it got them in trouble and if you follow in their footsteps then the law will give you the same consequences.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License