Children as young as 12 are setting up 'businesses' to sell hundreds of knives on social media
Children as young as 12 are setting up "businesses" with their peers to sell hundreds of knives on social media, LBC has been warned.
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The head of the new National Knife Crime Centre, Commander Stephen Clayman, said his officers are fighting a perception among youngsters that selling blades online is akin to running a "tuck shop".
"The problem is that some children don't see what they're doing as wrong," Clayman, a senior officer at the Metropolitan Police, told LBC.
“They are effectively setting up a business peer-to-peer, making some money, connecting other people and using their supply routes for others.
"That's hugely concerning because if we start seeing that develop even more and they start using young people to deliver the knives, you're talking about similar exploitation that you get with drugs.
Read More: Teen murder rates drop to lowest level in more than a decade due to steep decline in knife crime
“We've seen children selling knives who have no real criminal history. This isn't a tuck shop - these are knives that can kill or injure.”
Commander Clayman's comments came at the launch of a new national centre which has been set up to help achieve the government’s aim of halving knife crime within a decade.
It’s been designed to understand the national threat posed by weapons and bring together police and community leaders with government officials to identify and address gaps in the law.
Selling knives over social media - to over 18s - is legal in the UK, but there is no requirement for online vendors to be licensed.
Some officers have told us that creates a challenge when it comes to investigating or taking action, where its unclear if children are involved.
Sarah Jones, the policing minister, described the trend of children selling weapons as a “devastating” move away from them engaging in legitimate online enterprise, such as selling unwanted clothes.
She pledged that the government will "never stop looking" at how legislation needs to change to meet new threats.
“It shows how criminals keep finding new ways to exploit young people," she said.
“In the current environment, young people are encouraged to set up their own [legitimate] businesses to buy and sell online, for example with clothes.
“But criminals have come into that and gone 'okay, you can do this by buying and selling knives' and so we have to be on top of that and we have to come down very hard on it.
“It cannot be right that we are seeing these children buying and selling knives and that is exactly why we are taking action, why we are changing the law on bulk buying and why we're setting up the National Knife Crime Centre so that we can bear down on these kinds of crimes.”
Legislation is already working its way through Parliament which will require retailers to report bulk orders of knives, after cases of hundreds being bought within a short space of time without police knowing.
It will also introduce tougher sanctions for online platforms that don’t remove illegal knife content and strengthen ID checks during legitimate online sales.
A licensing scheme is also being considered, which could help police take tougher action against online sellers who aren’t registered.
The policing minister appeared to rule out a complete ban on online knife sales, though.
Pooja Kanda’s 16 year-old son Ronan was killed in Wolverhampton by a teenager who’d bought a ninja sword over the internet in 2022.
It was a case of mistaken identity which has led Pooja and her daughter Nikita to campaign heavily for change.
They told LBC they welcome the planned changes, even though they would rather it was possible to go further.
Nikita said: “I think an outright ban would just be great. I mean, I would love to not have to see any sort of sharp instruments for sale online but I think licensing can help control that.
“And whoever is buying that, if it’s for a legitimate purpose - like martial arts or gardening - I think they should be licensed as well.
“I think then they would be bound to take more accountability for what’s happening.”
As the new national centre begins operating, Commander Stephen Clayman told LBC he’s confident that they can bring about change.
“I'm always optimistic that we can make really good inroads,” he said.
“All we're here to do is to make communities safer and the most fundamental thing is that we just want to limit the accessibility of the knives people can get hold of.”