Policy & Practice: Soapbox - Shop-a-yob bingo trivialises a seriousyouth issue

There is something distasteful about playing bingo for prizes in this context. After all, we are talking about children, some of whom are very young, judging by the images of those in their school uniforms. Not that you would know this from the editor's introduction to the game: "It's time to take the scum off our streets", and "Identify these lowlife... why should we be terrorised by jumped-up, thoughtless scumbags like these?".

The extreme, scathing language is telling.

When the public is asked to identify pictures of alleged adult offenders, it is generally in the context of serious crimes. Crimewatch does not carry pictures of motorists who have jumped a red light - indeed, there would be public outcry if it did - even though such behaviour has potentially much more serious consequences than putting your tag on a bus seat. Of course, I'm not condoning vandalism; it's stupid, pointless, unpleasant and ultimately costly. It makes sense to take measures to reduce vandalism, but that is a long way from accepting, as the newspaper suggests, that the community is so "terrorised" by this behaviour that we need to "remove this scum for the good of us all". Shop-a-yob bingo demonises young people while trivialising a serious issue.