Introduction
Friday February 27th was expected to be a typical day at secondary schools in Southwark and Croydon, south London. However, after lessons ended around 3pm, numerous teachers positioned themselves on streets near their schools as students headed home.
In some areas, after-school detentions were cancelled to allow pupils to return home earlier. Police officers were also present in certain locations, equipped with dispersal orders enabling them to direct any gathered youths to leave specific areas.
The reason for this heightened presence was concern over a series of social media posts calling for 'red v blue' wars between schools across the city. These posts encouraged confrontations between students in London and initially circulated on TikTok and Snapchat. Similar posts later appeared referencing schools in Bristol, Cardiff, and the West Midlands. The posters—split red and blue—often depicted individuals wearing balaclavas, wielding weapons, and listed various school names on each side. Fights were reportedly scheduled for that afternoon in south London, explaining the police and teacher presence.
However, no fights occurred. The Metropolitan Police confirmed no violent incidents related to the posters had been reported.
At first glance, this incident seems to illustrate social media's significant influence on young people. Yet, further investigation suggests a different dynamic.
Tracking the original posts and consulting sources within social media companies revealed only a modest reaction among youths when the posts first appeared. The real surge in interest occurred after the posts were shared in parent WhatsApp groups.
Comments on the now-viral posters show teenagers joking about their allegiance, often mentioning they only learned of the posts through their parents' group chats.
Snapchat removed a limited number of posts for violating community guidelines. TikTok reported only a small number of searches for 'School Wars' until the posts gained wider attention from parents and media.
"We have to take it seriously when parents and kids do - even if the people who came up with it weren't that serious," a police detective told me anonymously.
"I've found the real life (over-)reaction fascinating to watch."
This raises the question of whether this is an example of a phantom trend, where fear amplifies real-world effects rather than reducing them. It also highlights the gap between how children and parents experience social media.
The Red v Blue Trend
In mid-February, the first 'school wars' posters appeared on social media accounts based in east and south London. The schools listed were in Hackney and Croydon, urging students to meet on specific days and locations to fight.
The origin of these posts remains unclear. Several TikTok accounts contacted believe local teenagers or young people created them, based on the style and referenced schools.
"These young kids think it's cool trying to create an 'og' [original gangster] gang war, blue vs red," said Panos, a gaming account.
The posters build on a broader 'red v blue' trend where users create videos encouraging people to choose sides on various issues, such as selecting between two phones or characters, categorized as red or blue.
"I'm not sure where they originated — I [saw] it on Snapchat where everything posted has only 24 hours… then it disappears," a gamer from Bristol said.
The posters appear to have been created using AI, giving them a slick and professional look. This complicates tracing their origin, especially since accounts believed responsible were banned.
Sander Van Der Linden, professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge, explained the posts were designed to provoke a reaction.
"I think it's important for parents, teachers, and students to realise that in-group vs out-group psychology [an us versus them mentality] is often exploited by social media algorithms to create division," he said.
His team published a 2021 study in the National Academy of Science journal analyzing millions of social media posts. The study found that virality and engagement are strongly predicted by out-group derogation or "dunking" on the opposing side.
"Each additional word referring to the 'other side' increased the odds of a social media post being shared by 67%. We refer to this as the 'perverse incentives of social media'. I think the red vs blue campaign is a nice example of that."
The Metropolitan Police arrested a 15-year-old and a man in his twenties in east London in connection with the trend but could not confirm if they were linked to the original posters.
Both were arrested "on suspicion of encouraging or assisting in a crime" and were bailed pending further inquiries.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told the BBC last week:
"Local officers continue to work alongside local authority partners, school leaders and parents, whose joint robust response has been vital in protecting young people across the last week."
They confirmed on Monday that no reports of violence had been received.
The anonymous detective said they first became aware of the trend several weeks prior and had to carefully consider the response.
"Once it's mentioned to teachers and fed through to a local authority, we do have to act. It would be terrible if say 100 kids armed with knives turn up at one place and stuff like that has happened before."
Marc Burrows, a trust and safety expert formerly at Twitter, noted the complexity of the posts' meaning.
"What's fascinating about something like red vs blue is the layers and layers of lore built into it that make it so utterly impenetrable to anyone not swimming in the right end of the pool it originated from," he said.
"All the gang stuff, the points systems, the AI posters, all of it is totally native and completely legible to the generation it emerged from, and easy to completely misread if you're outside. That's how internet culture works. These things develop their own internal logic, their own mythology, and they're not designed to be understood by parents or police or journalists, they're a community talking to itself in its own language."
The Parent Factor
When parents discovered the 'red v blue' posts, they shared them in parental WhatsApp and Facebook groups, alerting schools.
Some secondary school students only became aware of the posters because of what their parents saw.
Abi Lewis from south London, mother of two sons aged 11 and 15, described her experience.
"I first saw the 'school wars' post circulating on my year seven son's parents' WhatsApp group. Quite a few parents were asking about if anyone had heard about it and there was quite a lot of concern," she said.
"The children at that point hadn't heard anything about it and they only became aware of it a few days later. At that point there were police standing outside the school every day. There was also a safeguarding assembly at the school about it."
"As far as I know, there wasn't any actual fighting and this was something that was just concocted on social media," she added, noting children seemed to learn about it after adults.
The detective explained that once teachers became involved, there was significant pressure on police to act, especially with some parents keeping children home.
"One thing we're increasingly teaching is a concept called 'critical ignoring' which will become more important in the face of AI-generated slop, where sometimes it's better to just ignore low-quality stuff," Dr Van Der Linden explained.
"I think it's important that we educate teens, parents, and teachers about how algorithms and social media might exploit our psychological biases to sow division and elicit violence."
Dr Van Der Linden advocates creating simulated social media feeds to educate teens about online manipulation in a safe environment, making them and their parents more resilient.
A History of Phantom Trends
This incident resembles a phantom trend, where the reaction overshadows the trend's actual social media impact.
Some trends have been entirely fabricated.
In 2019, the 'Momo Challenge' claimed a woman with bulging eyes hacked WhatsApp to set children dangerous challenges. Schools warned parents, and the scary image circulated due to panic. However, police reported no incidents of self-harm linked to it.
The reaction from parents, schools, and media coverage arguably fueled the spread of the image and fear.
"I was at Twitter when the Momo Challenge happened, and I had to explain it to people who were absolutely convinced there was a monster in their children's YouTube videos instructing them to self-harm. There wasn't. It was a panic built on a creepy sculpture that had nothing to do with anything," Marc Burrows recalled.
"But thanks to the sort of media that loves a clickbait story, even when they don't understand it, the panic itself became real. Eventually parents were terrified, schools sent letters home, news outlets ran alarmist coverage and suddenly something done for the lols and appreciated originally on that level is on the actual news."
Fact-checking website Snopes described the story as "far more hype or hoax than reality." David Mikkelson, Snopes founder, noted:
"The subject has generated rumours that in themselves can be cause for concern among children."
The Samaritans charity said it was unaware of any verified evidence linking the meme to self-harm, and the NSPCC reported more media inquiries than parental concerns at the time.
More recently, claims that a TikTok trend led to paracetamol overdoses were unsubstantiated, with TikTok denying such events.
However, some phantom trends have had real consequences, such as two American girls attempting to kill another under influence of the Slender Man character, or injuries from the Benadryl challenge.
In August 2023, a poster similar to the School Wars one circulated about disorder and looting on Oxford Street, which did lead to real crowds, chaos, and arrests.
This trend falls somewhere in between: limited traction and seriousness, but panic worsened the situation—a pseudo-phantom trend.
Parallel Social Media Worlds
Regarding the recent 'school wars' hype, some children felt confused or scared, and localized confrontations may have occurred. Some children believed significant organized fighting or deaths happened, though no evidence supports this.
In comments, many young people found the trend humorous. Some even suggested it was invented by adults or the government to push for social media bans for under-16s.
It is evident that young people and their parents experience social media differently.
The "better safe than sorry" approach, involving police and teachers on the streets, may have increased fear. However, Professor Van Der Linden supports this response.
"I think such a swift response was good, it could be that the campaign never went anywhere [much] because its impact was dampened by a quick response from schools and the police."
Snapchat told the BBC their guidelines "prohibit even ambiguous support for or tacit approval of violence" and that they work to remove such content.
A TikTok spokesperson stated the company "take these sorts of situations very seriously, and responded by mobilising a dedicated risk response team, removing content, blocking search results, and communicating with the Metropolitan Police."
Tech insiders suggest a more proactive moderation approach could prevent such posts from gaining traction or causing panic. This includes avoiding algorithmic promotion, automatic detection and removal of weapon images, and employing more human content analysts.
Professor Van Der Linden advises parents of teenagers to discuss what appears on their social media feeds, including the "incentives and motivations" behind posts aiming to polarize schools and communities. He also cautions parents about forwarding posts, which can unintentionally amplify their reach.
Marc Burrows commented:
"Once a meme climbs out of a TikTok video and into the physical realm it ends up like Margot Robbie in the Barbie movie when she first comes to the real world - completely out of context, trying to operate with an entirely different set of rules that aren't at all applicable anymore."
"He describes red v blue as like that but far less fun because of the issues involved. You end up in this bizarre space where the reaction to the thing becomes the thing, and the original meme is just sitting there in the background, meaningless to everyone except the people who made it."
Conclusion
BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. Emma Barnett and John Simpson bring their pick of the most thought-provoking deep reads and analysis every Saturday.
for the newsletter here.
