Net Banging: Street Gangs Answer the Digital Craze

In the age of growing Internet accessibility, street gangs are using the Net to attract and influence young people.

By Robin I. Young, NCPC Staff

Gangs are so prolific in America today that few communities can boast that they haven’t felt their presence. Gangs operate through violence, intimidation, and fear tactics, and have established roots deep within many neighborhoods. And their growth is accelerating. As disturbing as that may be, the reality is that street gangs continue to expand with a businesslike acuity and often boast the same tactics to influence the masses. Just as commercials attempt to sell cars or other products, gang members are now attempting to sell the gang lifestyle via one of society’s most popular media: the Internet.

Over the past few years, we have seen the emergence of various social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. Despite the professional or innocent personal use for which these sites were intended, street gangs have taken notice of their popularity and have begun to use them as a means to recruit new members and intimidate rivals. This new phenomenon is known as Net banging.

With a simple click of the mouse, anyone, including young children, can take a tour of the life of a gang member, view someone brandishing a gun, painting graffiti, and many other activities. Though law enforcement makes use of these sites to gain valuable information for investigations, many agree that the sites can in fact be dangerous, especially for naïve young children that enter into chats with gang members. According to San Mateo, CA, Police Chief Susan Manheimer, gangs are more than aware that young children are using the Internet more frequently. She was quoted on www.cbs5.com, the website for KPIX television in San Francisco, as saying, “We're seeing our gangs and the resurgence of some of the gang members coming back from prison looking more and more to those middle school [kids] and the younger kids to recruit them.”

The concern over these chats or websites is not just about their recruitment technique, but also the ability they have to incite violence on the street. A random search on MySpace revealed a number of alleged gang member’s pages that were seemingly created just for the purpose of inciting conflict with their rivals, one even going as far as to display a burning blue bandana, the symbol of another gang, and another making a threat of violence toward a particular person in the title of the page. "The type of profiling they're doing of themselves makes them prey to predators and also at odds with and challenging other gangs," said Manheimer. "So, we'll see something start on the Internet, and actually turn into an assault or a gang fight that actually results out of Internet profiling."