Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF) and the Home Office

Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF) and the Home Office

Collecting young peoples’ views about mobile phone crime

www.outofyourhands.com

Background

The Out of your Hands? online resource is sponsored by the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF) and the Home Office with an aim to educate young people about responsible mobile usage, prompting them to consider the impact of mobile phone crime.

Aim

To establish young peoples’ views (7-14 year olds) about mobile phone crime and gather first-hand accounts of youth-on-youth crime. The findings are then to be utilised to shape the development of the website and resource content, and to grab the attention of teachers when promoting the existence of the resource and the importance of its aims.

What did we do?

We created an in school activity allowing us access to 767 first-hand accounts of teenagers’ experiences of mobile phone theft. Students were asked to complete a questionnaire as part of a lesson plan. The results of the student findings were then used by teachers to conduct a class debate about their collective experiences. The outcomes were also able to demonstrate the current mind set and feelings of young people to the stake holder group within MICAF and the Home Office.

Results

Key findings from the study were:

  • Majority of teenagers believe that mobile phone theft is getting worse.
  • Almost half of thefts happen on school premises.
  • For those thefts that happen on school property, the key times they occur are: during assembly, on break or lunchtimes (often as bags are not with their owner) and surrounding PE lessons.
  • Most students felt that the main reason why mobiles are stolen is to resell for money.
  • The large majority of students feel that mobile phone thefts are getting worse.

We used the research findings to inform the online outofyourhands.com resources and campaign, whilst utilising statistics in communications to teachers to ensure that they are aware of how prevalent mobile phone crime among young people has become.

We endeavour to conduct research with students and teachers on a regular basis on behalf of MICAF to ensure that the campaign remains relevant.