Organised fights and viral videos: Teenage brawls at Cape Town malls causing concern
Some shopping centres have upped security after the most recent incidents of teens 'staging' violent fights in public.
People moving inside a mall, shopping centre. Pexels/Burst
Criminologist and community activist Ben de Vos joins Mike Wills (in for John Maytham) on the Afternoon Drive.
A disturbing trend of teenagers staging violent fights at shopping centres is causing concern in Cape Town.
The events, sometimes called 'Fight Nights', appear to be organised via social media, with hordes of youngsters turning up to watch and film what happens.
It's reported that at least two malls have upped security after recent incidents at the V&A Waterfront and Canal Walk.
The violent behaviour of course also causes a safety risk for the public, especially as some of the teens bring are armed with items like sharpened objects to use as weapons.
Commenting on one video showing the chaos caused by these public brawls, Fight Against Crime SA (FACSA) called on parents to 'please take note of where your children are and how they’re conducting themselves in public'.
This kind of behaviour is being exacerbated by the rise in the use of social media, says criminologist and community activist Ben de Vos.
"This kind of thing has been coming a long way but it's definitely taking a different dynamic now. It's a spillover of a culture of violence and intolerance from a digital space into actual physical spaces that were designed for the pubic for recreational purposes.
Ben de Vos, Criminologist and Community Activist
"The digital space is unsupervised and to add to that, pretty unregulated... It gives them a sense of freedom."
Ben de Vos, Criminologist and Community Activist
The element of criminality also creeps in as the youth in some areas are being recruited into gangs at an ever-younger age, de Vos says.
He agrees that parents need to become more aware and more involved in what their kids are up to, especially on social media.
"We really need to look at the parenting paradigms - you get the permissive style where a lot of things are allowed but we should really in this particular case look at another parenting model of being ever-present in the digital spaces of these youngsters."
Ben de Vos, Criminologist and Community Activist
"It's difficult to do, but we need to find a way to do it - it's for the safety of these kids and also for the safety of the public."
Ben de Vos, Criminologist and Community Activist
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