An evaluation of Section 6 of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012

4. Impact of the legislation

49. As chapter 3 outlined, there were low numbers of section 6 charges. This chapter examines the extent to which section 6 may have had such a deterrent effect on potential offenders. A survey of 2,185 Scottish football supporters provides insight into perceptions of the online behaviour of football fans (although section 6 is not exclusively related to football-related offending, football-related threats were a key concern the Act was introduced to address). The views of representatives from justice system practitioners and internet forum administrators of football related websites and a national newspaper are also examined.

The Scottish Football Supporters Survey

General findings

50. The survey asked respondents to note their demographics, their religion and any football club affiliations. Respondents were then asked their views on a series of questions including: whether they ever visited football-based internet forums and the frequency of such visits; whether they were ever offended by anything during these visits, and if so what was it that offended them; if have they noticed any changes in frequency of any such offensive comments, and if so whether they thought this was related to the Act; and what was their opinion of how the Act had been used to deal with these offensive comments.

51. Survey respondents reported high levels of online participation with 85% saying they had ever 'visited internet sites, online forums or blogs to post messages and / or read about football (e.g. your football club's online chat forum or a fans' forum).'

52. Of these respondents who visited football-related internet sites, 51% were offended by something they saw or had read over the last two football seasons (10% were often offended, 41% were occasionally offended). These respondents were divided in their perceptions on the frequency of these offensive posts since the start of the 2012-13 football season. Forty-one percent thought there was no change in frequency, a quarter thought they had become more frequent, and around a quarter (24%) thought they had become less frequent.

53. Of those respondents who were offended by something on a football-related internet site, 45% were offended by negative references to religion, 35% by comments in support of terrorism, 33% by the celebration or glorification of the loss of life, 26% by negative references to a person's country of origin, 26% by threats of violence, 19% by negative references to a person's sexuality, 15% by negative references to a person's skin colour, and 11% by negative references to a person's gender.

54. When asked 'what difference the Act has made in relation to threatening communications online', 56% believed it had 'made no difference in relation to frequency of incidents of threats of violence in football fan forums and elsewhere', while 18% believed the Act had contributed to a reduction and 5% believed the Act had had an increase. Twenty-one percent of respondents claimed not to know enough about the Act to answer this question.

55. Of these same respondents, 58% believed that the Act had made 'no difference in relation to the level of incitement of religious hatred in football fan forums and elsewhere.' However, 19% believed the Act had contributed to a reduction and 7% believed the Act had had an increase. Seventeen percent of respondents claimed not to know enough about the Act to answer these questions. Table 2 demonstrates these responses.

Table 2: Difference the Act has made in relation to threats of violence and incitement of religious hatred online, in football fan forums or elsewhere

	Threats of violence %	Incitement of religious hatred %
The Act has contributed to a reduction	18	19
The Act has made no difference	56	58
The Act has contributed to an increase	5	7
Did not know enough about the Act	21	17
Base	1513

56. Although charges under the Act have been made on very few occasions since the legislation was introduced, the survey respondents still had views on how proportionately it had been used. These views might have been associated with the other section of the Act (offensive behaviour at football) that has been widely covered in the media.

57. Regarding how the Act had targeted threats of violence online, in fan forums or elsewhere, 24% of these same respondents believed it had done so proportionately, but 34% believed it had done so disproportionately and 16% believed the Act was targeting behaviour that did not amount to a threat of violence.

58. When asked about how they thought the Act had targeted incidents of incitement of religious hatred online, in fan forums or elsewhere, 23% of respondents believed the Act was being used proportionately. However, 35% believed the Act was being used disproportionately to target incidents of religious hatred, and 18% believed the Act was targeting behaviour that did not amount to incitement of religious hatred

59. There was also a lack of detailed knowledge about the Act, and around a quarter of respondents said they didn't know enough to answer these questions. Table 3 highlights these figures.

Table 3: Perceptions of how the Act has been used to target threats of violence and incitement of religious hatred online, in football fan forums or elsewhere

	Threats of violence %	Incitement of religious hatred %
The Act is being used in a way that is proportionate	24	23
The Act is being used in a way that is not proportionate	34	35
The Act is being used to target behaviour which does not amount to inciting religious hatred	16	18
Did not know enough about the Act	26	24
Base	1513

60. Of those respondents who did visited internet sites, online forums, or blogs to post messages and / or read about football, 10% stated that they had changed their behaviour in regards to what they might post online since the football season 2012/13, with 34% of these respondents claiming this was as a direct result of the Act. This suggests that the Act may have had an effect on the behaviour on a portion of one of its main target groups.

Justice system practitioners' views on the impact of the legislation

61. Most justice system practitioners believed that knowledge of the specifics of section 6 was still low in some quarters of the public. Procurator fiscal respondents in particularly commented on this aspect. However while it may be the case that the specifics of section 6 are largely unknown , it was thought by many justice system practitioners that the public were largely aware in a general sense of the existence of a new law and that the 'message' of the purpose of section 6 had been received. It was speculated that this awareness could be attributed to a series of high-profile cases in the media of prosecution - whether by section 6 or another piece of legislation - of individuals who had made threatening communications.

62. Justice system practitioners believed that as a result of this raised awareness among the public, some people who were previously more likely to have made threatening communications were now 'self-policing' and were savvy enough to not make such comments, or to at least avoid making them in open forums. They believed this was evidenced in changes to online behaviour.

People shutting down their own [social media] accounts and saying 'oh, I made a wee comment when Neil Lennon was going through the bullets and bomb scenario…', things like that…so that kind of tells you that the self-policing side of that has worked as well and that's predominantly what we rely on. (FoCUS Police Officer)

They're no daft enough because if they're clever enough to conceal themselves at the football with their scarf over their [face], or they go out their way to make sure they don't get caught saying anything they shouldn't be, then they're unlikely to be going online [to post threatening communications] unless they're steaming drunk. (FoCUS Police Officer)

63. Some interviewees also noted the absence of Rangers from the Scottish Premiership (during the time period of the evaluation). It was speculated that this may have lowered some of the previous 'spikes' of incidents of such behaviour associated with the big matches that Rangers were involved in - the return of these football fixtures, particularly the ones against Celtic, might therefore see a subsequent rise in offensive communications between rival fans.

Internet forum administrators' opinions on the impact of the legislation

64. For this research Scottish national newspapers with facilities for users to comment on published materials online were approached and asked to participate in this research but just one agreed. Six online website forum administrators of Scottish football-based websites with user comment sections were also approached and 2 agreed to participate. Neither the newspaper or website forum administrator formally monitored the quantity or long-term trends in the type of threatening communications being made, meaning evidence provided here is only anecdotal.

65. These respondents thought that there had been a reduction in the number of problematic communications since the Act was introduced, although of the incidents they had observed they considered very few to constitute an offence by the definition of section 6. Similar to the justice system practitioners, they speculated that this drop could be associated with a combination of a lack of Celtic and Rangers games and also users of the site being aware of new legislation to tackle offensive communications due to the high-profile cases covered by the media.

Summary

• Around half (51%) of survey respondents were offended by something they saw or had read over the last two football seasons. Forty-one percent of respondents thought there was no change in frequency, 25% thought they had become more frequent, and 24% thought they had become less frequent.
• Forty-five percent of respondents were offended by negative references to religion, 35% by support of terrorism or terrorist group, 33% by glorification of the loss of life, 26% by threats of violence, and 26% negative references to a person's country of origin, 26% by threats of violence, 19% by negative references to a person's sexuality, 15% by negative references to a person's skin colour, and 11% by negative references to a person's gender.
• Fifty-six percent believed the Act had made no difference in relation to frequency of incidents of threats of violence; 18% believed it had contributed to a reduction; and 5% believed it had had an increase.
• Fifty-eight percent of respondents believed the Act has made no difference in relation to such incidents of incitement of religious hatred; 19% believed it had contributed to a reduction; and 7% believed it had had an increase.
• Although charges under the Act have been made on very few occasions since the legislation was introduced, the survey respondents still had views on how proportionately it had been used.
• Twenty-four percent believed the Act was being used proportionately to target incidents of threats of violence online. However, 34% believed it had done so disproportionately, and 16% believed the Act was targeting behaviour that did not amount to a threat of violence.
• Twenty-three percent of respondents thought the Act was being used proportionately to target incidents of incitement of religious hatred online. However, 35% believed it was being used disproportionately, and 18% believed the Act was targeting behaviour that did not amount to incitement of religious hatred.
• Ten percent of respondents claimed they had changed their behaviour in regards to what they might post online since the Act was introduced. Thirty-four percent of these respondents claimed this change in behaviour was as a direct result of the Act.
• Justice system practitioners perceived there to have been a drop in offences that may have been relevant to section 6 over the past two years. This was perceived as being due mostly to a combination of high-profile prosecutions of threatening communications (by section 6 or not) raising awareness of legislation in place to deal with them which 'sent a message' to the public about the unacceptability of such actions, and a lack of Rangers and Celtic fixtures cooling the rivalry between these opposing sets of supporters. Online forum administrators also anecdotally noted a decline in football-related user-to-user offensive language and threats over the past two years.