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Organisational Responses
to Social Media Storms
An Applied Analysis of
Modern Challenges
Andy Phippen
Emma Bond
Organisational Responses to Social Media Storms
“Written in a clear and lively style, this book examines the breadth and depth
of social media storms across a series of carefully crafted case studies. It offers a
compelling analysis of how a new risk culture is transforming social relations and
advances our critical understanding of a changing, digital world. Based on original
empirical research and thought-provoking argument—this is an important and
timely book.”
—Professor Eamonn Carrabine, University of Essex and Editor Crime, Media,
Culture
“A very interesting analysis of the changing face of online safeguarding, how

social media storms can create moral panics, and how organisations can respond.
For anyone working in online safeguarding, this is an essential book to read.”
—David Wright, Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre
“This book is the fore-runner when considering new aspects of online media
activity and its impact on those charged with safeguarding children and adults.
It offers a topical and compelling discourse on the impact of social media
storms on educational establishments and their responses to such phenomena.
The authors highlight the need for safeguarding professionals to develop a far
more critical approach to digital literacy through their examination of four
real-life scenarios. They get you thinking “what would I do in those circum-
stances?” which leads to the very purpose of this book—to open up debate in an
endeavour to ensure that best practice is achieved in all our dealings relating to
the protection of children and adults. Well worth reading.”
—Tink Palmer, MBE—CEO Marie Collins
Andy Phippen · Emma Bond
Organisational
Responses to Social
Media Storms
An Applied Analysis of Modern Challenges
Andy Phippen Emma Bond
Department of Computing Suffolk Institute of Social
and Informatics and Economic Research
Bournemouth University University of Suffolk
Bournemouth, UK Ipswich, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-49976-1 ISBN 978-3-030-49977-8 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49977-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: © Melisa Hasan
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Contents
1 Organisational Responses to Social Media

Storms: An Introduction—Fake News, Post-Truth
and Policy-Based Evidence Forming 1
1.1 The Rise of the Post-Truth Era 1
1.2 Social Media Storms 2
1.3 Approach 3
1.4 Structure 6
References 8
2 The Case of Vanessa George and the Little Teds

Nursery in Plymouth: Calls for a Return to Capital
Punishment? 11
2.1 Background 12
2.2 Child Sexual Abuse 15
2.3 Social Constructions of Childhood and Gender 17
2.4 More Than Technology 19
2.5 Organisational Impact 21
References 23
3 Momo Week: A Perfect Social Media Storm

and a Breakdown in Stakeholder Sanity? 27
3.1 Background 28
v
vi CONTENTS
3.2 Failing to Learn from History—The Story

of the Blue Whale Challenge 30
3.3 The Emergence of the Momo Challenge 34
3.4 Momo Week—A Perfect Social Media Storm? 36
3.5 Organisational Responses 41
3.6 Implications 45
References 47
4 Teen Sexting: The Challenge for Secondary

Schools—Where a Society Decides Criminalising
Children Is Perhaps Not the Best Safeguarding
Approach 49
4.1 Background 50
4.2 The New Normal? 52
4.3 Teen Sexting and Social Media
Squalls 54
4.4 A Turning Point? 58
4.5 Organisational Response 61
References 66
5 The Warwick University Group Chat:

Where Reputation Is Placed Ahead
of Safeguarding? 69
5.1 Introduction 70
5.2 Cybersexism 71
5.3 The Warwick Online Rape Chat 74
5.4 Context 74
5.5 They Should Know Better 75
5.6 Warwick’s Response 76
5.7 Conclusions 78
References 81
6 Conclusions: What Happens When People

Only Hear Echoes of Their Views and
No-One Knows What a Fact Looks Like 85
6.1 Fake News and Echo Chambers 85
6.2 Responding to Social Media
Storms 86
CONTENTS vii
6.3 Learning from Case Studies 87

6.4 An Intense Reflection of the Zeitgeist 90
References 91
Index 93
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 Google Trends of searches for “Vanessa George” in the

UK between 2009 and 2020 (Data source Google Trends
https://www.google.com/trends) 14
Fig. 3.1 Google Trends data for “Blue Whale Challenge” searched
for in the UK (Data source Google Trends https://www.
google.com/trends) 33
Fig. 3.2 Google Trends data for “Momo Challenge” searched for
in the UK (Data source Google Trends https://www.goo
gle.com/trends) 37
Fig. 3.3 Google Trends data for “Blue Whale Challenge” and
“Momo Challenge” searched for in the UK (Data source
Google Trends https://www.google.com/trends) 42
Fig. 3.4 Search frequency for Momo-related terms in RM-filtered
schools over previous year 44
Fig. 3.5 Search frequency for Momo-related terms in RM-filtered
schools for “Momo week” 45
Fig. 4.1 Google Trends for teen sexting in the UK (Data source
Google Trends, https://www.google.com/trends) 55
Fig. 4.2 Charge and caution statistics for minors arrested under
Home Office code 86/2 (Data source Ministry of Justice
2018) 62
Fig. 5.1 Google Trends for “#shameonyouwarwick” between 2019
and 2020 (Data source Google Trends https://www.goo
gle.com/trends) 72
ix
CHAPTER 1
Organisational Responses to Social Media

Storms: An Introduction—Fake News,
Post-Truth and Policy-Based Evidence
Forming
Abstract Social media storms are a modern-day digital phenomenon,

whereby online platforms provide citizens with the opportunity to express
their opinions on key issues of the moment which, in turn, raise aware-
ness among friends and followers, who then also express opinions. In this
book, social media storms around issues related to online safeguarding,
and the responses that organisations once the storms start to blow, are
explored. Using a mixed-methods approach of thematic analysis from the
storms themselves, and ethnographic observations from work in the field,
we make use of four case studies to demonstrate the role of social media
storms in organisational change in the education section, as well as wider
cultural and legislative impact.
Keywords Social media storms · Ethnography · Online safeguarding ·

Case study research
1.1 The Rise of the Post-Truth Era

Following the publication of a rigorously researched and reviewed scien-
tific paper that considered the impact of social media on young people’s
well-being (Orben et al. 2019), media reporting (Harding 2019) picked
up on the results that concluded that there was little evidence to suggest
© The Author(s) 2020 1

A. Phippen and E. Bond, Organisational Responses to Social Media
Storms, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49977-8_1
2 A. PHIPPEN AND E. BOND
that social media had little wide-ranging and serious impact upon the
well-being of young people. The resultant public response drawn from
social media was, at best, mixed, with some welcoming accurate analysis
against the usual media narratives and conjecture that “well it must be bad
for them!”; however, there was much generally disbelieving, reinforced
with the reporting of the study in the media, at a time when media and
policy discourse (UK Government 2019) wished to place social media as
a purveyor of harmful content and upset for children and young people,
alongside a groundswell of stronger regulation and greater responsibility
by social media companies.
This small social media event was a wonderful encapsulation of the
post-truth era (McIntyre 2018) in which facts and evidence are dismissed
in favour of opinion and conjecture. Clearly, as McIntyre explored in
his text, social media has a role to play here—the echo chambers of
opinion and agreement, in spite of evidence to the contrary, underpinned
by media reporting with prolific use of sensationalist headlines in order
to more sales and online traffic. Why would we believe evidence, when
we’ve decided something different ourselves and we can find others who
will reinforce our viewpoint?
The impact of social media on lives and organisations is still only
just beginning to be understood (bearing in mind that the technolog-
ical phenomenon has not been around for even a generation yet), but its
impact has been significant. Political parties invest billions on social media
advertising and analytics platforms in order to be able to reach supporters
and persuade others, media courts social media share and click rates as a
means to replace the revenue once generated by print sales, and in the
midst of this cultural adaptation, social media storms take place, blowing
in cultural change as a result of mass social consensus.
1.2 Social Media Storms

While there is a dearth of academic research exploring social media
storms, without even an established definition of what they are, there
is general cultural recognition of what it is when it happens—an event,
reported through the media, will trigger a social media response that will
reach a large audience, through shares, reposts and online commentary,
such that the event moves into a public consciousness where everybody
seemingly has an opinion on the event in question. The role of the media
in influencing public opinion has long been debated (e.g. Gene Zucker
1 ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSES TO SOCIAL MEDIA STORMS … 3
1978; Kozma 1994; Kitzinger 2004); it is generally agreed that main-

stream media has some influence over public opinion. Whether this is
compounded by the use of social media by news channels remains to be
clearly understood. Perhaps one of the best contemporary explorations
of social media storms is Jon Ronson’s (2015) exploration of the re-
emergence of public sharing via social media, showing the impact of a
groundswell of technologically facilitated public opinion on individuals
and how organisations respond as a result.
This book explores the growing phenomenon of the social media
storm in the context of educational establishments and their organisa-
tional responses. With a methodological approach that draws on aspects
of virtual and offline ethnography, we present a series of case studies of
public online risk-related incidents (i.e. an incident that the organisation
has to deal with that is either technologically facilitated or motivated),
the role of social media storm in organisational responses, and whether
we can consider these storms to be a positive or negative modern cultural
phenomenon.
1.3 Approach
Our ethnographic methodology adopts the use of unobtrusive data collec-
tion approaches, to exploit publicly available data from online interactive
behaviours. This text is motivated by seminal works such as Cohen’s
(2002) exploration of moral panics, which richly explored the nature of
moral panics and how public opinion is fed by media narrative around
“seven objects” of cultural identity mistrusted by the mainstream. We
will be drawing upon techniques established by Internet research pioneers
such as Hine (2000), Miller and Slater (2000) and Turkle (2011) in
making use of both online data sources and observations from the field
to inform our ethnographic account, in order to provide an in-depth
exploration of the public and organisational discourses arising from four
high-profile Internet risk case studies in the education sector ranging from
early year to the university sector. It will consider the social construction
of risk society (Beck 1992; Giddens 1990, 1991) and a new risk culture
in late modernity arising computer-mediated social interactions, its impact
on the organisations, and organisational and societal responses.
This book purposefully focuses on the education sector, as they are
often at the front line of online incidents, media interest and social media
response resulting from their habitation in what Cohen (1972) refers
to as ‘Object 4 – Child abuse, satanic rituals and paedophile registers’.

Under protectionist discourses specifically, people are concerned about
the abuse of children and respond strongly to media reporting on these
issues. Schools and other education settings are therefore sometimes the
focus of these issues, either as the location for abuse (as we describe in
Chapter 2), or an institution with a responsibility for the safeguarding of
children and young people, with expectations that exceed far beyond the
school walls. Educational establishments face challenging online incidents,
due to the public nature of these organisations, the breadth of stakeholder
interest and the often-salacious nature of public online incidents in this
sector. The book illustrates how incidents can have far-reaching conse-
quences, and how digital technology can be a late modern double-edged
sword (see Giddens 1990) both a boon and extremely detrimental to
organisations.
The relationship between the offline (organisational process) and
online (the influence of stakeholders such as parents and wider commu-
nities, the role of mainstream media, the contemporary means to express
opinion on the operation of the school beyond a discussion at the school
gate) contexts highlights issues beyond the education section around
organisational response. Moreover, social media is a platform in which
virtually everyone invests and therefore has an opinion. Or, to put it
another way, being able to use a technology seems to empower everyone
to have an opinion on its use, regarding any understanding of its oper-
ation or any responsibility for abuse that occurs. In taking the above
example of the school gate, if one chooses to express discontent about the
organisation’s operation there, the audience will be smaller and geograph-
ically condensed. If one expresses the same opinion online, the audience
can be extensive, and the opportunities to disseminate further are many.
Therefore, educational establishments have to find new ways to manage
the event that has caused a storm to arise, and develop proactive and
preventative strategies so these storms are anticipated and addressed
pragmatically. They can no longer respond in private, with just the
school board securitising response that would have arisen in a traditional
complaint by a parent, for example, about the conduct of a teacher in
class. Now, rather than going to a school, a parent engaging with the
media to trigger a social media storm could place the organisation under
the global spotlight. We are reminded of a case of a teacher collecting
(public) photographs of pupils from Facebook in order to deliver an
assembly to make them think about their own privacy setting (Robinson
2014). One of the images used was of a pupil in a bikini. The pupil, upset
by the embarrassment of seeing herself in swimwear in the assembly hall,
complained to her parents. This was a well-intentioned, but misguided,
attempt to get pupils to “Think before they post”, and if the parent had
visited the school to make a complaint face-to-face, there might have been
swift resolution of the upset caused. However, one of the parents chose,
instead, to go to a national tabloid newspaper, who ran the story the next
day, and subsequently incited a social media storm which reached the
other side of the Atlantic on the same day and resulted in attacks on the
teacher, young person, parents and school. From one contributor, calls
for the teacher’s dismissal were justified because no one in that position
should be “looking at children online”. However, others were of the view
that the young person themselves was at fault because they had posted
the picture with no thought to privacy, while other commentators drew
conclusions as to the motivation of the parent to go to the press with a
story when they should have spent more time worrying about what their
child was doing online.
Social media storms generally do not originate from a random collec-
tion of private individuals posting on social media, as the average social
media user has relatively little reach and therefore cannot create a
groundswell of opinion necessary to fire up a storm. The storms are
formed when influential individuals or organisations (e.g. newspapers),
with an order of magnitude in a higher number of followers, use social
media to disseminate information or share their opinions or views. News-
paper headlines are deliberately written to attract attention and draw the
reader to the story, particularly in the online world where it has been esti-
mated that a reader decides on whether to read an article in less than a
second.
Once the winds of these storms reach a significant number of social
media users, it will be them further accelerated by others sharing and
retweeting these influential posts. In all of the case studies analysed in
this text, the catalyst for all of the storms has been mainstream media’s
use of social media to disseminate inciteful stories. It is interesting to note
that in three of the four cases, the stories were based upon truth, and one
was a hoax. However, dissemination was swift in all cases and impact was
significant.
1.4 Structure
The following four chapters each present a case study of a social media
storm around either a specific event (in three cases) or a long-term
trend where social media discourse played a strong role in shaping public
opinion. They are:
1. The case of child abuse that occurred at the Little Teds pre-
school childcare setting in a city in the South West of the UK.
More specifically, it focuses on the release from prison of Vanessa
George, a former worker at the nursery who conducted, recorded
and distributed the abuse online with two contacts—Colin Blan-
chard and Angela Allen. As one might imagine, the social media
response to such a horrific case was powerful and angry, and the
impact of the case caused significant changes in practice across early
years settings in the whole country.
2. The Momo Challenge—an online digital ghost story that, for one
week in 2019, caused a social media storm, driven by tabloid media,
authority figures and celebrities which as can be demonstrated had
a negative impact on children and young people. Momo was, it
was proposed, an online app that connected to young people via
YouTube and Fortnight, and encouraged them to self-harm and
hurt their families. However, as was swiftly demonstrated, this story
was entirely false. However, that did not stop adults driving chil-
dren to look for Momo and become upset as a result. This case is
a demonstration of a failure of professionals and other adults with
safeguarding responsibilities to react to unfounded stories with a
critical eye, rather than being swept up in the storm themselves.
The Momo case demonstrates very clearly the need for much more
digital literacy in staff at primary settings and online safeguarding
training in general.
3. Teen sexting and the criminalisation of children are the focus of the
third case study which, while not having an explosive, violent storm
such as that experienced in the above two cases, is interesting in
itself as it certainly collected a mass of public opinion which arguably
resulted in a change of practice in the criminal justice system (albeit
one that has potential not improved things for the better). While
early media opinion on teenagers exchanging self-produced inde-
cent images was general focused on the corruption of youth and
the depravity of their actions, once young people started to become

criminalised the media view adapted to a position of questioning
the social value of young people ending up with criminal records
based upon legislation near 50 years old. The storms followed, and
this case explores this change in attitude and also the impact of the
storms on changes to the justice system.
4. The final case study explores a still unresolved legal case that resulted
from leaked group chats among students at Warwick University in
the UK, where male students were discussing enacting violent sexual
acts upon female peers, often in the same classes. Once this was
discovered, the messages were used at the basis of a complaint and
a subsequent disciplinary process that had extremely unsatisfactory
outcome which, ultimately, resulted in media coverage and ongoing
legal case that has had serious repercussions for a sector who, until
this case, did not believe they had any responsibilities for the online
safeguarding of their students.
While each of these cases has their own themes and nuanced differences,
the approach to the analysis was similar in all cases, making up of a
thematic analysis of social media commentary that was drawn from the
media stories that generated the storms. However, aside from celebrities,
we make use of those comments anonymously. While all of the comments
collected have come from public sources (i.e. they are freely accessible to
anyone wishes to search for them—we have not made use of fake social
media accounts or befriended subjects), we see little value in the use of
identity data in expressing the themes of the storms, except in the case of
celebrities, where their identity is necessary to demonstrate the volume
of followers they have and the associated reach.
Alongside this data, we have made use of Google Trends to clearly
illustrate the ferocity of a storm in the collective consciousness. While
Google Trends data only gives an indication of term popularity over a
given time period and is not an accurate measure of search volume, it
does give a relative value, which is a strong indication of search term
interest compared to others at a given time and therefore extremely useful
to measure storm strength.
Coupled with the online data collection approaches, we draw upon our
own experiences as actors in the online safeguarding context during these
storms. We have, collectively, well over 30 years experience researching
online phenomena and working actively in the online safeguarding world
with many different stakeholders, such as young people, teachers, parents,

children’s workforce professionals, lawyers and policymakers. For two
of these cases, we have been professionally involved in the activities
surrounding the storms; for the other two, we have had input into
the storms via stakeholder engagement. While the basis of our research
work lies in the statutory education sector, it is interesting to note that
over the past three years we have moved our focus to higher education,
specifically in response to our own experiences in the sector and observa-
tions about the dearth of policy, knowledge and training around online
safeguarding. We have, therefore, a perhaps unique perspective as both
research academics and active participants in the practices and stakeholder
perspectives on these cases.
Following on from the cases studies, we draw the book to a close by
returning to our original intention of reflecting on the nature of organisa-
tional response to social media storms. The case studies give a wide range
of perspectives on the nature of social media storms and we consider
whether this learning can be used by organisations. We stated at the
start of this chapter that social media storms are not well researched
in academia and we hope this book starts to generate questions and
reflections on the phenomenon and how researching them allows us to
better understand cultural change in a connected world and hopefully
help organisations become more proactive in dealing with them.
References
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society towards a new modernity. London: Sage.
Cohen, S. (1972). Folk devils and moral panics. London: Routledge.
Cohen, S. (2002). Folk devils and moral panics: The creation of the mods and
rockers. New York: Psychology Press.
Gene Zucker, H. (1978). The variable nature of news media influence. Annals
of the International Communication Association, 2(1), 225–240.
Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity Cambridge. Cambridge, UK:
Polity Press.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity self and society in the late modern
age. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Harding, E. (2019). Social media does NOT harm teenagers, Oxford
study says amid claims online activity only has a ‘trivial’ effect on
their happiness. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6999807/Social-
media-does-not-harm-teenagers-Oxford-study-says.html#comments.
Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. London: Sage.
Kitzinger, J. (2004). Framing abuse: Media influence and public understanding

of sexual violence against children. London: Pluto Press.
Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will media influence learning? Reframing the debate.
Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 7–19.
McIntyre, L. (2018). Post-truth. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Miller, D., & Slater, D. (2000). Internet. New York: Berg Publishers.
Orben, A., Dienlin, T., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). Social media’s enduring
effect on adolescent life satisfaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 116(21), 10226–10228.
Robinson, M. (2014). Schoolgirl, 15, humiliated by teacher who showed a picture
of her in a bikini to 100 fellow pupils to demonstrate dangers social networks.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782126/Schoolgirl-15-humili
ated-teacher-showed-picture-bikini-100-fellow-pupils-demonstrate-dangers-
social-networks.html.
Ronson, J. (2015). So you’ve been publicly shamed. New York: Riverhead Books,
A member of Penguin Group (USA).
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less
from each other. New York: Basic.
UK Government. (2019). The Online Harms Whitepaper. https://www.gov.uk/
government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper/online-harms-white-
paper.
CHAPTER 2
The Case of Vanessa George and the Little

Teds Nursery in Plymouth: Calls for a Return
to Capital Punishment?
Abstract Starting our trajectory through educational settings, this

chapter considers the first social media storm discussed in this volume,
which garnered public attention on an early year’s organisation and
nursery education in the UK. Vanessa George, a mother of two, was
charged with seven offences in 2009, including two of sexual assault by
penetration and two of sexual assault by touching and producing 124
indecent images of children. She was also charged with making, possessing
and distributing indecent images of children. Such behaviours are hard to
comprehend, and public outcry and horror related to the case is evident
across many social media platforms with hundreds of people sharing
their views on the case and her subsequent release from prison. Littered
with words such as ‘scum of the earth’; ‘pervert’; ‘monster’; depraved’;
‘repugnant’; ‘heinous’; and ‘evil’, the social media storm that surrounds
‘Britain’s worst female paedophile’ is a fascinating example of the public’s
view on the lack of justice for the children she abused.
Keywords Little Teds · Child sexual abuse · Case review ·

Indecent images of children · Hate speech
© The Author(s) 2020 11

A. Phippen and E. Bond, Organisational Responses to Social Media
Storms, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49977-8_2
2.1 Background
Starting our trajectory through educational settings, this chapter
considers the first social media storm discussed in this volume, which
garnered public attention on an early years organisation and nursery
education in the UK. It is a timely chapter given recent political devel-
opments kept the case in the public eye. On 11 February 2020, the
then MP for Plymouth, Luke Pollard, supported the proposed introduc-
tion of a new UK law to prevent the early release of child sex abusers
who refuse to name their victims. The proposed Prisoners (Disclosure of
Information about Victims) Bill, otherwise known as Helen’s Law, would
place an obligation on Parole Boards to taken into consideration any non-
disclosure on the part of the offender when applying to be released from
prison.
This political development, and specifically Pollard’s support for it,
was influenced by the public outrage towards the proposed release from
prison of Vanessa George, a former nursery worker from Little Teds
nursery in Plymouth where she abused the young children in her care and
shared images of the abuse online with two contacts—Colin Blanchard
and Angela Allen. Unsurprisingly, the public commentary on social media
was driven by anger and outrage with calls to keep child abusers locked
up, capital punishment to be reintroduced for those who abuse children
or various forms of physical abuse exacted out on Ms. George (such as
burning and starvation).
Under UK law, namely Section 160 of the Criminal Justice Act (Home
Office 2003), it is a criminal offence to possess an indecent photograph
or pseudo-photograph (i.e. computer-generated) of a child, as well as the
taking, making, distributing and sharing of an indecent photograph or
pseudo-photograph of a child (Section 1; Protection of Children Act;
Home Office 1999). George, a mother of two, was originally charged
with seven offences in 2009, including two of sexual assault by penetra-
tion and two of sexual assault by touching and producing 124 indecent
images of children. She was also charged with making, possessing and
distributing indecent images of children. The three offenders—George,
Blanchard and Allen—met on Facebook. Using various online platforms,
George had an online relationship with Blanchard, whom she met online
in 2008, who had a previous conviction for possessing indecent images
of children. As Vandiver (2006) points out, it is not uncommon for male
child abusers to choose a female companion based on the fact that the
2 THE CASE OF VANESSA GEORGE AND THE LITTLE TEDS NURSERY … 13
relationship enables an access to children. George would send Blanchard

images taken on her phone of her abusing children at the nursery, they
shared sexual fantasies of a graphic nature and Blanchard further shared
the images with Allen, with whom he also had an online relationship
and subsequently introduced to George in 2009. The strength of feeling
towards George was clear to see on social media, with many claiming she
should not be allowed to live and others suggesting they would be happy
to enact an execution themselves.
Such behaviours are indeed hard to comprehend and related to the case
is evident across social media platforms as depicted in the quote above.
While it is not the intention of this chapter to provide a psychological
account for explaining such behaviours, Ramiro et al. (2019: 2) suggest
that social norms are ‘practices we engage in primarily because we think
they are the right thing to do’ and what ‘moral society demands of us’.
However, descriptive norms—‘practices we engage in because we want to
coordinate with what other people in our reference network are doing’—
become dominant in cases such as this. As illustrated by the following
quote from the Guardian:
Transcripts obtained by the Guardian of Blanchard’s interviews with detec-

tives – extracts from which are published here for the first time – together with
details from the heart of the Greater Manchester police’s lengthy operation to
catch him, describe instead a serial abuser who transfixed vulnerable women
with access to children.
Luring these women into a male version of a honey pot, Blanchard twisted
their moral compasses so they would feed his dark fantasies, abusing chil-
dren to order, photographing the deeds and sending him the image files
as evidence in an act of sordid ventriloquism (Levy and Scott-Clark 2011).
Use of the Internet to share images of child sexual abuse by adults has
attracted much media attention, and at the time of her arrest in 2009,
public shock and anger were evident on both traditional and social media.
Similarly, public interest in the case again peaked in the weeks before her
release from prison in September 2019. If we plot the Google Trends
in the UK for Vanessa George, these peaks in public interest are clearly
shown (Fig. 2.1):
Fig. 2.1 Google Trends of searches for “Vanessa George” in the UK between
2009 and 2020 (Data source Google Trends https://www.google.com/trends)
A Google search rendered hundreds of news headlines focusing on her

release from prison and the reaction on social media was one that
was primarily focussed on not granting parole (because paedophiles will
always reoffend and are incapable of rehabilitation, in the view of some
commentators).
Nevertheless, the Parole Board found George no longer posed “a signif-

icant risk” but would face strict conditions upon her release. George has
refused to name the children she abused, and therefore, concerns remain
over many children who attended the nursery at the time as to whether
they were also abused by George, leading to media headlines such as the
below:
Families ‘tormented’ by nursery abuser’s silence.
It was this refusal that dominated the public discourse around the time of
her release and the subsequent call for Helen’s law, with calls for George
to be incarcerated until such time she did disclose the names of victims,
as this would show she can, at least, demonstrate remorse and empathy.
The 1366 comments on the Daily Mail article headlined ‘Britain’s
worst female paedophile Vanessa George, 49, will be freed from jail after
convincing a parole board she no longer poses a ‘significant risk’ to chil-

dren’ published in July 2019 were littered with phrases such as ‘scum
of the earth’; ‘pervert’; ‘monster’; depraved’; ‘repugnant’; ‘heinous’; and
‘evil’ as well as hundreds of comments referring to the lack of justice for
the children she abused.
2.2 Child Sexual Abuse

The World Health Organisation (WHO) (1999) defines child sexual
abuse (CSA) as ‘the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she
does not fully comprehend and is unable to give informed consent to’. It
is well acknowledged that victims of CSA carry the experience of abuse
into adulthood (Tener and Murphy 2015) and the very serious impact of
CSA on survivors’ physical, social and mental health is well documented
(Bond et al. 2018; Fisher et al. 2017). The comments from the social
media storms illustrated the known impact of CSA on mental health on
victims but also the strength of feeling towards George for what she did
with, again, calls for the death penalty enacted with a variety of methods
including electrocution or hanging.
According to MacLeod (2015: 97), ‘child sexual abuse has reached
epidemic proportions in the United States, and one of the most underrep-
resented groups of sexual offenders in the criminal justice system is that
of the female sexual offender (FSO)’. As discussed below in this chapter,
the fact that George was female is one of the most significant factors in
the public social media interest and commentary. The number of individ-
uals being sentenced for child sex offences has increased across the UK
(Crown Prosecution Service 2016), and there is also an increase of convic-
tion rates for viewing, distribution and production of online child sexual
exploitation material (CSEM) in the last two decades (Merdian et al.
2017). The spread and use of online CSEM is a significant problem that
proliferates as digital technologies advance (Seto 2013) and it is increasing
(IWF 2019). In addition to burgeoning numbers, online abuse images of
children are increasingly more sadistic and violent and the children in the
images are increasingly younger and it is not unusual to see images of
young infants (Bunzeluk 2009; CEOP 2014). Online CSA and CSE have
an additional abuse dimension in the image(s) in that:
Behind every image, video or screen, there is a real child victim being sexually
exploited. Like other forms of sexual abuse, online abuse can scar victims
emotionally and physically for a lifetime. But unlike other forms of abuse,
the child can potentially be re-victimized millions of times – every time an
image is watched, sent or received. (Ecpat, online)
Therefore, as Palmer (2005) argues, the effects of CSA may be exacer-

bated for children whose abuse is recorded, especially when images of
abuse are intentionally disseminated, and viewed and collected via the
Internet. Online child sexual exploitation has dramatically increased in
recent years (Kloess et al. 2014) and the increasing role of the Internet
in child sex offenders’ behaviour has been well documented for over a
decade (see, for example, Beech et al. 2008). Public concerns relating to
indecent images of children online reflect the media discourse of stranger
danger online, children being groomed online and being coerced into
producing and sharing sexual material or performing sexual acts online—
the sexual extortion of children in cyberspace (AÇAr 2016). Rimer’s
(2019: 160) study highlights the role of cultural othering in offending
and found that offenders of online child sexual exploitation and abuse
‘constructed children differently: as less or not “real”, and as sexualised.
This rendered the children in CSEM fundamentally different, which facil-
itated offending, assisted in overcoming barriers and allowed participants
to hold conventional beliefs about children and childhood while engaging
in incongruent online activity’.
In this case, however, the abuse took place in the trusted space of
an early years setting, the Little Teds nursery, and then shared online.
According to official statistics of such crimes, cases like this are seemingly
few but it is important to remember that such statistics are only the tip
of the iceberg as they only reflect the cases which come to the attention
of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH), law enforcement and the
criminal justice system as Wonnacott (2013: 32) observes:
while still few in total, these instances of abuse provoke shock and outrage
due to the young age of the children and the fact that the offenders were in a
position of trust within an organisation assumed to be the subject of rigorous
inspection regimes.
Palmer (2005) argued that while little is known about the effects of
knowing that images of their abuse exist, children have the right to know
about information that is directly related to them. Martin (2015: 278)
further argues:
Due to the possible effects of such knowledge, it is important to explore issues

such as the age at which a child should be informed of abuse images online,
the criteria used to make decisions about informing a child, and who should
be responsible for making this kind of decision. It is also important to clarify
how the particular harms perpetrated by the recording of the abuse, and by
the intentional online distribution of the images, may affect the victim. This
kind of vital knowledge will have implications for how to respond to such cases
and how the therapeutic needs of the children are addressed.
However, as George refused to name the children she abused and, as

many of the images of the abuse did not include the faces of the chil-
dren, and the young age of the children who could not talk about what
had happened to them, identifying all of her young victims has not been
possible.
2.3 Social Constructions

of Childhood and Gender
Dubbed the ‘UK’s worst female paedophile’, the public shock and
outrage evidenced in the Vanessa George case is underpinned by the
socially constructed nature of childhood and the role of gender in the
case of a female offender. Childhood as culturally and socially constructed
(Prout and James 1997) is not a universal and unchangeable concept,
but rather a heterogeneous one that differs across historical, geographical
and cultural contexts (Montgomery 2003). The Westernised construc-
tions of the ‘priceless child’ (Lancy 2008: 13) are apparent in the very
public social media commentary on the ‘innocent victims’, and it is the
concept of the innocent child that continues to be a familiar aspect of
contemporary Westernised discourse and which underpins child-centred
educational initiatives including nursery provision in the UK (James et al.
2010). While in relation to older children, the child appears in public and
media discourse as both victim and offender (see Chapter 4 on sexting in
this volume), the very young children in this case of Vanessa George were
clear examples of vulnerable beings in need of protection and who were
in the care of professional nursery worker.
The fact that they were abused by the very person who should have
been protecting and caring for them is also fundamental to the public
reaction we saw on social media. That women are viewed as caring
individuals who simply cannot engage in sex crimes (Strickland 2008)
exemplifies social and cultural constructions which are important to

understand the public discourse and social media storms that surround
the Vanessa George case and the pervasive belief that sexual offenders are
typically male and victims typically female. ‘Female sexual offending has
typically generated considerably less interest when compared with that
of male sexual offending’ (Gillespie et al. 2015: 285). While there is a
dearth of research on female sex offending (Levenson et al. 2015), there
is evidence to suggest that female sex offenders tend to have high rates
of psychological problems such as depression, low self-esteem and social
isolation (Elliott et al. 2010), which are often a result of their own sexual
victimisation (Elliott et al. 2010; ten Bensela et al. 2019). Rates of female
offending for CSA vary but according to Cortoni et al. (2017) official
records indicate females account for approximately 2% of all sex offenders.
As women encounter the criminal justice system, typically as victims rather
than as offenders, there is ‘limited empirical research on women who
have sexually offended against children, but there is a clinically-significant
group of victims who have experienced female-perpetrated child sexual
abuse’ (Weinsheimer et al. 2017: 446). Furthermore, ‘It is a commonly
held assumption, stated implicitly or explicitly in both public debates and
scholarly research, that child sexual abuse is a typically male crime, in
so far as offenders are generally held to be men and the level of sexual
aggression involved in their offences is seen as closely related to masculine
behaviour’ (Martellozzo et al. 2010: 592).
Findings from a US study ‘showed that female perpetrators were iden-
tified in one out of every five substantiated cases of child sexual abuse
as the first listed or theoretically implied primary perpetrator. When two
perpetrators were listed, the number of females identified as co-offenders
in a secondary capacity was over 42%’ (MacLeod 2015: 108). Worryingly
despite the minimal research dedicated to addressing the long-term effects
of female sexual abuse on victims, emerging studies have revealed that
the general public and professionals working in the area of child welfare
perceive sexual abuse by women as relatively harmless as compared to
sexual abuse by men (Denov 2004). This point was also apparent in the
comments on social media, where members of the public expressed, as
fact, that female offenders are treated differently and are subject to lesser
sentences, and that the justice system attempts to not go down a custodial
route.
As Weinsheimer et al. (2017: 447) point out, it may be that ‘social
norms and social stereotypes associated with women demand a higher
degree of evidence of abuse before parties will report alleged offenses

perpetrated by females rather than males. For these reasons, the true
prevalence of female-perpetrated sexual offenses might be masked and
understated’. Furthermore, ‘the reluctance to believe that a female, a
mother in a caring position, could sexually abuse a young child was
undoubtedly a factor in the lack of challenge to Vanessa George’s increas-
ingly worrying behaviour’ (Wonnacott 2013: 41), and as such, the
social construction of childhood and innocence interplays with the social
construction of gender and stereotypical female traits of nurturing and
caring and the professionalisation of early years practitioners.
Other comments, however, did not differentiate on gender but felt
the punishment should fit the crime, even though, in a lot of cases,
their perception of punishment would not align with official sentencing
guidance, instead of calling for execution.
It is this complex interrelationship which underlies the public commen-
tary which has throughout remained focused on the previously trusted,
female nursery worker figure of Vanessa George with little attention given
to Blanchard nor Allen.
2.4 More Than Technology

Recording the sexual abuse of a child, and the production of CSA images,
predates the Internet (Martin 2015: 275). Yet without doubt, ‘tech-
nology has had a profound effect on child sexual abuse and exploitation;
particularly the production, distribution, viewing, and collection of child
sexual abuse images online (CSAIO)’ (Martin and Slane 2015). It is
public shock and outrage that arguably fuelled the social media storms
that have surrounded the case, the enquiry and subsequently Vanessa
George’s release from prison. The call for a ban on mobile phones initi-
ated by a parent at Little Teds nursery exemplifies public concern at
the time but also the lack of understanding of the complexity of such
cases. The interoperability of the mobile phone has become ‘taken for
granted’ and embedded in late modern society (Ling 2012; Bond 2014)
but writing in the Guardian in 2009, Josie Appleton rightly questions
the subsequent ban on mobile phones in nurseries imposed on staff
with the headline ‘mobiles ban won’t stop child abuse’, as if the mobile
phone caused the abuse. Such simplistic reactions fail to acknowledge
the motivating psychological factors associated with online CSA such as
sexual arousal; pleasure in collecting; facilitating online relationships with
other users; replacing negative offline relationships; a form of “therapy”

to escape problems; and a manifestation of “addictive” aspects of the
Internet (see Quayle and Taylor 2002) and the implicit theories held
by CSEM users, the ‘interlocking core beliefs’ hypothesised to underlie
offence-supportive thoughts (Bartels and Merdian 2016: 17).
Thus, while the ban on mobile phones reeks of technological deter-
minism, it also masks the underlying causes of CSA and OCSA and the
problems which delayed the abuse being discovered in that, according to
the subsequent inquiry, the Little Teds nursery in Plymouth ‘provided
an ideal environment’ for George to abuse the children she was being
paid and trusted to care for, an observation that was picked up on and
much quoted in the UK press at the time (Morris 2010). Interestingly,
in the Birmingham serious case review into the abuse by Paul Wilson,
arrested in 2010 for rape and 47 counts of grooming girls online, the
Little Stars nursery where he worked was also criticised. The serious case
review reported the Guardian (Davies 2013) stated:
Jane Held, the chair of the safeguarding children board, said: “Respon-
sibility for this awful abuse must, and does, lie with the perpetrator.
He was clever, duplicitous and manipulative and took advantage of
weaknesses in the system.”
“In this case there were unfortunately a number of weaknesses in the way
that nursery was run and a number of opportunities to intervene earlier
and prevent the continuation of abuse which were missed,” she said.
“There are three key lessons arising from this review. One is that those in
charge of settings caring for children must ensure there are strong, clear
practices and systems to minimise the risk of abuse.”
“The second is to listen to and ask about children’s experiences rather than
just speak to adults.”
The third, and potentially the most important, is that safeguarding children
is a job for everyone, and every single person who looks after or cares for
children needs to know how to recognise when something is not right and
what to do about it, and have confidence they will get the right response when
they do act.
Wilson pleaded guilty in June 2011 to two charges of rape, 16 of causing

or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, 25 of making indecent
images and three of distributing images of children (BBC News 2011).

It is also interesting to note that ‘the abuse within the nursery perpe-
trated by Vanessa George and Paul Wilson was detected only because
of an investigation into their online activities, raising a legitimate ques-
tion as to whether or not, prior to the advent of the internet, these
offences within a nursery would have come to light’ (Wonnacott 2013:
34). However, while there are some similarities between the offending
in both cases, a Google search for Vanessa George reveals hundreds of
posts and comments including calling for the death penalty on both social
and mainstream media, and a search for Paul Wilson suggests less public
interest in the case with a fraction of the coverage. But what commen-
tary is there is also interesting in terms of attitude towards gender and
blaming parents, for example many claiming that one should never trust
a male nursery worker, given that most paedophiles are male. And in one
comment the respondent rather curiously stated they believed in gender
balance in early years settings but would not personally send their child
to a nursery with a male member of staff:
Whilst there are a number of comments in similar vein talking about not
trusting men working in nurseries, there are also a number challenging
such stereotypical attitudes where they felt there was too much prejudice
regarding male nursery workers, mainly as a result of personal experience
with their own children attending a setting with both male and female
staff. Other comments chastised those who had accused all male nursery
workers as being narrow minded and prejudiced.
Interestingly and perhaps most surprisingly given that there were an

estimated 72 thousand providers offering 1.7 million Ofsted registered
childcare places in England in Spring 2019 with an early years’ workforce
of an estimated 363,400 staff (DfE 2019), there were also comments
relating to parents looking after their children themselves, the implication
being if parents cared sufficiently they would not make use of early years
settings and would keep them at home instead.
2.5 Organisational Impact

Article 39 of the UN Convention on the Rights (1989) of the Child
stipulates:
State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and
psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim; of any form
of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflict. Such recovery and
integration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self -
respect and dignity of the child.
The traumatic impact of CSA is well known to have lifelong affects.

Images of the abuse that have been shared compound the problems for
victims. ‘Child victims who know, or become aware, that images of their
sexual abuse are circulating online must live throughout their lives with
the knowledge that these images may exist in cyberspace forever’ (Martin
2015: 277). ‘Child sexual abuse has a devastating impact on people’s
lives. Online child sexual abuse is increasing globally, with criminals using
technology to evade detection. Children are revictimised every time their
images are viewed online’ (IWF 2019: 6).
The case of Vanessa George and what happened at Little Teds nursery
in Plymouth incited public outrage and anger depicted in the social media
storms that surrounded her both arrest and subsequent release. Compared
to similar cases with a male offender, public opinion appears far stronger
due to the fact that she was female and this is evident in discourse from
social and print media. Reflecting the risk society thesis (Beck 1992),
some comments, however, did focus on the nature of the crime rather
than the gender of the offender and suggested that gender was an artificial
prejudice when considering crimes against children.
The key messages emphasised in the social media storm were the
abuse of trust placed in someone working in nursery with vulnerable,
innocent children especially given policy initiatives and developments in
child protection, safer recruiting and keeping children safe in education,
and that Vanessa George was female. While media commentary often
influences and shapes public opinion, it was public views and attitudes
that dominated media coverage of the case and highlighted the fact that
female-perpetrated child sexual abuse is often overlooked in debates on
child sexual abuse. It is important that the potential harm of sexual abuse
by women is better understood and indeed better recognised by both the
public and the professionals who play a crucial role in the recognition and
treatment of sexual abuse.
The ban on camera phones remains in place in many nurseries and
early years settings in the UK but taking on board the recommendations
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
166. Mr. Barton and some others of Mr. Rittenhouse’s friends had
repeatedly recommended to him to visit England: the former,
particularly, often urged him to it, and for the reasons assigned in the
text. That he had, himself, long contemplated that voyage, is
apparent from the extract of his letter to Mr. Barton, of the 15th of
March 1771, already quoted; and his last mentioned letter to the
same gentleman shews, that, nearly a year afterwards, he still had
that object steadily in view.
167. In a preceding letter, Mr. Barton had sent him some

Mathematical Problems, for solution. These had been furnished by a
schoolmaster, in Mr. Barton’s neighbourhood; who, although reputed
a pretty good mathematician, possessed but a small share of genius
or invention, while he had a large portion of confidence in his own
abilities. In noticing these problems, Mr. Rittenhouse could not
refrain from shewing some little irritation: he thought the
communications too trifling, too destitute of originality, or too useless,
to merit his attention; and, accordingly, he thus expressed himself on
the occasion, in a letter dated Feb. 3, 1772:
“I entreat you not to insist on my measuring heads with any

pragmatical schoolmaster, who is heartily welcome, for me, to divert
himself with his x. y. z’s, at which he may be very expert, and yet be,
as you say, both ignorant and conceited. His first question, however,
may be answered by any young algebraist: the second and third are
more difficult, and will admit of various answers. The fourth contains
four observations, picked out, (and carelessly enough, several of the
figures being wrong,) of a set made on the comet of 1682, which I
shewed your son William in about half a dozen different books; you
will find them in Dr. Halley’s Astronomical Tables. Every thing relating
to this comet has long ago been settled by Dr. Halley; so that, to give
a complete answer to the question, I need only transcribe from him:
but you cannot conceive how much I despise this kind of juggle,
where no use is proposed. If your schoolmaster will give me but
three good observations (I do not want four) of the comet of 1769, I
will accept them with thanks, and soon undertake the laborious task
of determining its orbit, which we yet know nothing about.”
To this Mr. Barton replied, in a vein of good-humoured pleasantry:
“I imagine you have mistaken me, with regard to the mathematical

questions. They were not sent as trials of your abilities: but, for
reasons with which W. B. is acquainted, and which I have desired
him to give you, in order to afford you a laugh. I shalt never “insist”
on your “measuring heads” with a “schoolmaster,” of any kind;
because I know full well, already, that your head is longer than all the
heads of the whole tribe. Had you known what diversion your
solutions would have afforded me, you would have sent them.”
168. It is not improbable, that about the time of writing the letter of
the 3d of Feb. 1772, from which extracts are given in the text, he
began to think seriously of marrying again. Both his natural
disposition and his habits endeared to him the comforts of domestic
society; and these he could not enjoy in a single state, his two only
children being infants. He therefore married, in December 1772; at
which time he was only in the forty-first year of his age. The lady he
chose as his companion, was a sensible, prudent and valuable
woman; whose family were members of the religious society of
Friends, and with whose brothers Mr. Rittenhouse had long been
intimately acquainted. By that marriage there was but one child, a
daughter, who died in her infancy. Mrs. Rittenhouse survived her
husband little more than three years. She died in October, 1799.
169. See the preceding note.
170. The first law of Pennsylvania, for removing rocks, sandbars

and gravel, from the bed of the river Schuylkill, so as to render it
passable with rafts, boats, and other small river-craft, was passed
the 14th of March 1761.
172. The Marks, &c. are particularly described in the Pennsylvania

Act of Assembly, passed the 29th of Sept. 1779, entitled “An Act to
establish and confirm the Boundary Line between this state and the
state of New-York.”
173. The Law, referred to in the preceding note, states the extent
of their further progress in the business at that time, which was
inconsiderable.
In September 1772, the Philosophical Society announced in the

public prints, the receipt, by them, of sundry communications: among
which were various astronomical observations, made in Canada, by
this gentleman and two other military officers, from June 1765, to
May 1770, (captain Holland being, at that period, surveyor-general of
the district of Quebec.) These observations were communicated to
the society by Mr. Rittenhouse; but, having been received after the
first volume of the Society’s Transactions was published, their
publication in the subsequent volumes was by some means omitted.
174. Although Mr. Ellicott’s commission bears date the 16th of
June, 1786, his appointment took place some months sooner. On the
3d of April, in that year, Mr. Rittenhouse wrote him thus:—
“Dear Sir,
“By direction of Council” (the Supreme Executive Council of

Pennsylvania,) “I wrote some time ago to the gentlemen appointed
by the state of New-York for running the northern boundary of this
state. I have received their answer; which is, that they will meet us at
Philadelphia on the 20th of this month, in order to concert measures
for carrying that business into execution. It will be necessary for you
to attend, and I shall confidently expect you—’till then, I must defer
many things I have to say to and settle with you: perhaps copying
the Nautical Almanack may wait until I see you. Hurry of business
will not permit me add more, than that I am,
Dear Sir,
Your very humble serv’t.
Dav. Rittenhouse.”
“Andrew Ellicott, Esq.
Baltimore.”
And on the 29th of September, in the succeeding year, he

addressed another letter on the subject of this boundary, to Messrs.
Ellicott and Porter, jointly; wherein he says:
“Your packet came safe to hand, about three weeks after the date
of the letters. I am much obliged to you for the intelligence it
contains; you have succeeded beyond my expectation, and I have
no longer any doubt of your completing the line this season. I should
have been glad, if, to the account of your work, you had added some
description of the country: but my curiosity must wait till your return.”
Mr. Rittenhouse continued in commission, for the establishing of

this line, until its entire completion: but his non-attendance with the
other commissioners in the actual running of the line, in the year
1787, was prevented by his being then engaged in fixing the
territorial boundary between the states of Massachusetts and New-
York. In the letter, last quoted, is this paragraph:—“Dr. Ewing and
myself were absent seven weeks, on the line between New-York and
Massachusetts, in which time we happily completed it, to the
satisfaction of all parties; and, with this business, I have bid adieu,
forever, to all running of lines.”
175. Dr. Rush has been led into a mere mistake of the date on this
occasion; probably, by an hasty perusal of the confirmatory law, of
Sept. 29, 1789. He states, in his eulogium, that it was the year 1786,
in which Mr. Rittenhouse “was employed in fixing the northern line
which divides Pennsylvania from New-York: his services on that
business were originally employed in 1774, He did, indeed, again act
as a commissioner, in the year 1786, and it was on the 16th day of
June, in that year, that Mr. Ellicott was commissioned to complete, in
conjunction with Mr. Rittenhouse, what the latter had begun to
execute eleven years and an half before the last mentioned date.
176. “In order to carry on the parallel of latitude with as much

expedition and economy as possible,” says Mr. Ellicott, “we
dispensed with the method of tracing a line on the arc of a great
circle, and correcting into the parallel; as pursued by Messrs. Mason
and Dixon, in determining the boundary between this state”
(Pennsylvania,) “and the state of Maryland, and which we followed in
completing their line in the year 1784. We commenced our
operations by running a guide-line, West, with a surveying compass,
from the point mentioned on the Delaware” (the one which was fixed
by Dr. Rittenhouse and Capt. Holland, in the year 1774,) 20¼ miles;
and there corrected by the following zenith lines” (laid down in the
sequel,) “taken, at its western termination, by a most excellent
Sector, constructed and executed by Dr. Rittenhouse.”
177. The Liturgy of the Church of England was first translated into
the Mohawk language, in the year 1714. Another translation was
made under the direction of three clergymen of that church; namely,
the Rev. Mr. William Andrews, Dr. Henry Barclay, and Dr. John
Ogilvie: This was printed in the year 1769; but the place where it was
printed does not appear. In the year 1787, an handsome edition of
the English Book of Common Prayer, with a translation into the
Mohawk language by captain Joseph Brant, was published in
London.
178. Mr. Rittenhouse is not mentioned in the petition, by name.

This was unnecessary: for it was universally known, that it could
apply to no other person in America, so unquestionable and pointed
are its allusions to him; and that, perhaps, no other Astronomer then
living, so well merited the high encomiums on his philosophical
abilities, which it contains.
179. Joseph Galloway and Samuel Rhoads, Esq’rs. the other vice-
presidents of the society, were then members of the general
assembly; and Dr. Franklin, the president, had not at that time
returned from England. Mr. Rittenhouse was, at the same time, one
of the curators of the society; as he was, also, during the year 1772.
180. That eminent mathematician and astronomer, Mr. Roger

Cotes,[180a] in an excellent preface to his edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s
Mathematica Principia Philosophiæ Naturalis, has explained the true
method of philosophising; shewn the foundation on which the
Newtonian system was built; and refuted the objections of the
Cartesians, and all other philosophers, against it. In this preface, Mr.
Cotes has ably answered those, who contended, that gravity or
attraction, in the system of Newton, was not a clearer principle, nor
one more fit to explain the phænomena of nature, than the occult
qualities of the peripatetics: for, there were still philosophers, such as
they were, who persisted in that absurd opinion! “Gravity,” said the
objectors, “is an occult cause; and occult causes have nothing to do
with true philosophy.” To which Mr. Cotes made this lucid reply:
—“Occult causes are not those whose existence is most clearly
demonstrated by observation and experiment; but those only whose
existence is occult, fictitious, and supported by no proofs. Gravity,
therefore, can never be called an occult cause of the planetary
motions; since it has been demonstrated from the phænomena, that
this quality really exists. Those rather have recourse to occult
causes, who make vortices to govern the heavenly motions; vortices,
composed of a matter entirely fictitious, and unknown to the senses.
But, shall gravity therefore be called an occult cause, because the
cause of gravity is occult, and as yet undiscovered? Let those who
affirm this, beware of laying down a principle which will serve to
undermine the foundation of every system of philosophy that can be
established. For causes always proceed, by an uninterrupted
connexion, from those that are compound, to those that are more
simple; and when you shall have arrived at the most simple, it will be
impossible to proceed further. Of the most simple cause, therefore,
no mechanical solution can be given; for if there could, it would not
be the most simple. Will you then call these most simple causes
occult, and banish them from philosophy? You may so; but you must
banish at the same time the causes that are next to them, and those
again that depend upon the causes next to them, till philosophy, at
length, will be so thoroughly purged of causes, that there will not be
one left whereon to build it.”
The great doctrine of gravitation and attraction, the substratum of

the Newtonian philosophy, is amply verified by numerous
observations and experiments. Whether that which constitutes the
principle of gravity be, in itself, an incorporeal or spiritual substance,
or a materia subtilis, some very subtile kind of ethereal fluid, is a
question which does not at all affect the actual existence of such a
power. “We know,” as is observed by a great astronomer[180b] of our
own time, “that all the bodies in our system are retained in their
courses by such a power” (the power of attraction.) “And,” he adds,
“it is a very singular instance of the unerring wisdom of the Creator,
that the law which this power observes is such, that notwithstanding
the mutual attractions of the bodies, the system will never fall into
ruin, but is capable of preserving itself to all eternity. “Moreover,”
continues the same profound writer, “the mutual attraction which
takes place between distant bodies could not, of itself, either
produce their motion about the sun, or the rotation about their axes:
it required an external impulse to operate in conjunction with it, to
produce these effects; an act, which nothing but the arm of
Omnipotence could accomplish.” “An invisible power pervades the
whole system, and preserves it. In the effects produced by man, we
see the operation of the cause; but “the ways of the Almighty are
past finding out.” “Hence,” says our author, “in whatever point of view
we take a survey of our system, we trace the Power, Wisdom, and
Goodness of the Creator: his Power, in its formation; his Wisdom,
in the simplicity of the means to produce the ends; and his
Goodness, in making those ends subservient to our use and
enjoyment. Thus we are led by our enquiries into the structure of the
universe, to the proofs of the existence and attributes of a Supreme
Being, who formed and directs the whole. Arguments of this kind
produce conviction which no sophistry can confound. “Every man
may see it; man may behold it afar off.” Let not therefore the ignorant
declaim against those pursuits which direct us to a knowledge of our
Creator, and furnish us with unanswerable arguments against the
infidel and the atheist.”
But, to return more immediately to the doctrine of gravitation:

Some experiments had been made by M. Boguer and M. de la
Condamine, so long since as the year 1738, upon the Chimboraso in
South-America, in order to test the Newtonian theory of gravity, by
examining the attraction of mountains; and the result accorded with
that theory. With a view, however, to establish the principle more
completely, the experiments of Messrs. Boguer and Condamine
having been made under so many disadvantages, as rendered the
result not sufficiently accurate to be entirely depended on, similar
experiments were made upon the Mountain Schehallien in Scotland,
by Dr. Maskelyne, at the request of the Royal Society, and under the
patronage of his sovereign, the present king, who liberally undertook
to defray the expenses. From observations of ten stars near the
zenith, he found the difference of latitudes of the two stations on the
opposite sides of the mountain to be 54″, 6; and by a measurement
of triangles, he ascertained the distance of the parallels to be 4364,
4 feet, corresponding, in that latitude, to an arc of the meridian of
42″, 94, which is 11″, 6 less than by observation: its half therefore,
5″, 8, is the effect of the attraction of the mountain; and from its
magnitude, compared with the bulk of the whole earth, Dr.
Maskelyne computed the mean density of the latter to be about
double that of the mountain. “Thus,” to use the words of Mr. Vince,
“the doctrine of Universal Gravitation is firmly established.” The
reader will find Dr. Maskelyne’s deductions from this experiment, in
Vince’s Complete System of Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 100 and seq.
180a. This extraordinary man, who was the first Plumian professor of
astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge, was born July 10, 1682,
and died prematurely June 5, 1716.
180b. The Rev. Mr. Vince, A. M. F. R. S. Plumian Professor of Astronomy and

Experimental Philosophy, in the University of Cambridge. See his Complete
System of Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 291.
181. The essay signed M. W. is dated from that place.
182. In the beginning of these observations of Mr. Rittenhouse, on

“J. W.’s” piece, he says—“I am one of those who are ready to
subscribe to the general maxim, That perfection is not to be found in
any thing human; and therefore do not suppose the Newtonian
philosophy to be so perfect as not to admit of amendment: But I must
confess, that almost all the attempts to controvert that philosophy,
which I have met with, amount to nothing more than so many proofs,
that those who made them did not understand it. Of this kind, are the
objections started by your correspondent, J. W.”
183. Alluding, probably, to Metaphysicians; for, neither Mr. M. W.

nor Dr. J. W. was distinguished as a Mathematician.
184. Dr. Franklin was president of that convention.
185. Dr. Ramsay, who published his History of the American

Revolution at the close of the year 1789, after observing that the
policy of Great-Britain, in throwing the inhabitants of her ancient
colonies on the American continent out of her protection, induced a
necessity of establishing independent constitutions for themselves,
makes these judicious remarks:—“The many errors that were at first
committed by unexperienced statesmen, have been a practical
comment on the folly of unbalanced constitutions and injudicious
laws.”
186. The articles of confederation were not finally ratified by

congress until the 9th of July, 1778. “After eleven years experience,”
as Dr. Morse has observed, “being found inadequate to the purposes
of a federal government,” the present constitution of the United
States was formed at Philadelphia, in the summer of 1787, by that
wise, liberal and patriotic assembly, in which the illustrious
Washington presided.
187. “War never fails,” as Dr. Ramsay has justly observed, “to
injure the morals of the people engaged in it. The American war in
particular,” continues that historian, “had an unhappy influence of this
kind. Being begun without funds or regular establishments, it could
not be carried on without violating private rights; and in its progress,
it involved a necessity for breaking solemn promises, and plighted
public faith. The failure of national justice, which was in some degree
unavoidable, increased the difficulties of performing private
engagements, and weakened that sensibility to the obligations of
public and private honour, which is a security for the punctual
performance of contracts.”
This is a melancholy but faithful representation of some of the

injurious impressions made on the moral sentiments and feelings of
the people of this country, by the revolutionary war: evils inseparable
from warfare; and such as necessarily spring from a state of things,
alike destructive of social order and the refinements of society, as
repugnant to the precepts of religion, the dictates of natural justice
and the mild suggestions of benevolence.
188. This large and thriving borough, said to be the greatest inland
town in the United States, was, for a short time, (though very short,
indeed,) the seat, or rather place of refuge, of the American
congress; the members of which, having separated on the near
approach of the British army, eight days before their occupation of
the capital, re-assembled at Lancaster the 27th day of the same
month. Lancaster, which is situated at the distance of sixty-four miles
from Philadelphia, in a direction nearly west, was at first conceived to
be a place of safety: but, for their more perfect security, congress
convened, three days afterwards, at York in Pennsylvania, a
considerable county-town about twenty-two miles westward from
Lancaster, and from each of which places, the intervening great river
Susquehanna is about equidistant.
189. His active mind derived much of its happiness from its
continual employment. It appears, that, while engaged in the duties
of his office, at Lancaster, in the latter part of the year 1777, he made
the calculations for an Ephemeris, called “Father Abraham’s Pocket-
Almanack, for the year M.DCC LXXVIII;” the late Mr. John Dunlap,
the publisher, (who was, during many years, an eminent printer in
Philadelphia,) having, in his advertisement of it, announced to the
public, that “The Astronomical Calculations of this Almanack were
composed by David Rittenhouse, A. M.” Mr. A. Ellicott made
calculations for Pennsylvania and Maryland Almanacks, several
years after Mr. Rittenhouse declined to continue them.
It is believed that our Astronomer made the calculations for

“Father Abraham’s Almanack,” and probably some others, for
several years: but mostly in the earlier part of his life. And, as it was
no disparagement to the talents of a Franklin to publish “Poor
Richard’s Almanack,”[189a] (which the Doctor long continued to print,)
so it was none to the genius and abilities of a Rittenhouse, that he
employed himself, occasionally, in making calculations of an useful
nature for these Ephemerides.
189a. Not only the astronomical calculations of this once well-known and
highly esteemed Ephemeris, but its poetry also, (which is said to have possessed
a considerable share of merit,) were the productions of Jacob Taylor, Esq. an old
English gentleman, who, for some time, executed the office of Surveyor-General of
Pennsylvania. Franklin was the printer and publisher of this Ephemeris: but many
of the productions of his pen, which appeared in it, and, among the rest, his “Way
to Wealth,” contributed towards rendering it a very popular publication, of its kind.
Franklin commenced the publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” in the year
1732, when he was but twenty-six years of age.
190. “At no period of the war,” says chief-justice Marshall the
historian, “had the American army been reduced to a situation of
greater peril, than during the winter at Valley-Forge.” “More than
once they were absolutely without food. Even while their condition
was less desperate in this respect, their stock of provisions was so
scanty, that there was seldom at any time in the stores a quantity
sufficient for the use of the troops for one week. Consequently, had
the enemy moved out in force, the American army could not have
continued in camp. The want of provisions would have forced them
out of it; and their deplorable condition with respect to clothes,
disabled them from keeping the field in the winter. The returns of the
first of February (1778) exhibit the astonishing number of three
thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine men in camp unfit for duty,
for want of clothes. Of this number, scarcely a man had a pair of
shoes. Even among those returned capable of doing duty, very many
were so badly clad, that exposure to the colds of the season must
have destroyed them. Although the total of the army exceeded
seventeen thousand men, the present effective rank and file
amounted to only five thousand and twelve. The returns throughout
the winter do not essentially vary from that which has just been
particularly stated.”
Such was the miserable condition of the American army, at the

date of the above returns! It was, indeed, sufficiently desperate in
appearance, to have appalled the stoutest heart; and it required the
magnanimity, as well as the virtue of a Washington, to conquer
such difficulties and rise superior to them.
191. This sister of Mrs. Rittenhouse was the widow of Colonel

Caleb Parry, a gallant officer in the American service, who was killed
at the battle of Long-Island in July, 1776.
192. John Jacobs, Esq.—This gentleman was a brother of Mrs.

Rittenhouse.
193. Israel Jacobs, Esq.—Another brother of Mrs. Rittenhouse.

194. This eclipse, which happened on the 24th day of June, 1778,
was observed in Philadelphia, by Dr. Rittenhouse, the Rev. Dr. W.
Smith, John Lukens, Esq. and Mr. Owen Biddle, at the College in
that city. The result of the joint observations made by those
gentlemen on that occasion, as drawn up by Dr. Smith, but never
before published, will be found in the Appendix. W. B.
195. To this lady, who is yet living, Mr. Barton was married in the
year 1776. She remains his widow, and enjoys the very affectionate
respect of Mr. Barton’s descendants and relatives, to which her great
worth and many virtues justly entitle her.
196. Colonel Samuel J. Atlee, formerly a parishioner of the Rev.

Mr. Barton, had written two letters to him, to inform him of his son’s
arrival. The second of these only had got to hand, and was
acknowledged at the same time as Mr. Rittenhouse’s. Col. Atlee,
who was a steady friend of Mr. Barton’s family, was a valuable officer
in the American army, in the earlier period of the war; and afterwards
served as a delegate in congress, for the state of Pennsylvania.
The difficulty of Mr. Barton’s returning to Pennsylvania, and which

he alludes to, in his letter to Mr. Rittenhouse, arose from the terms of
his passport to New-York, from the Supreme Executive Council of
Pennsylvania: it permits him to go to New-York, “not to return.” A
letter which Mr. Barton wrote to John De Hart, Esq. of Elizabeth-
Town in New-Jersey, on the 30th of January, 1779, will sufficiently
explain the conscientious scruples which actuated the writer’s
conduct; and they were such as, it is presumed, will have weight,
when dispassionately and liberally considered.
In addressing Mr. De Hart, Mr. Barton says:—“I received your

favour of the 22d instant, by Mr. Alexander. The papers with which
you entrusted me, gave me no trouble, except that of my not being
able to serve you in the manner which was first proposed. You may
depend on their safety in my hands; subject to such directions as
you shall be pleased to give me.” “I wish for an opportunity to oblige
you, and if any should offer, I beg you will employ me without any
apology.
“I am just informed that my son has returned to his native country,
after an absence of between three and four years. How melancholy
and distressing is my situation! separated from eight children, and
three congregations, to whom I am bound by duty, gratitude, and
every tie of affection! ‘A parent only knows a parent’s woes;’ and
such will feel for me. You are kind enough to tell me, that my son
requests me to return to my parish. What he can mean by this
request, I am totally at a loss to understand: could the matter have
been determined by my option, I should never have left my parish,
for any prospect of preferment that could offer. But no choice was left
me, but either to take the oath, or to suffer a painful separation from
my dearest connexions; as well as from a country which always had,
since I have known it, my predilection and best wishes; a country to
which, I can declare (with an appeal to heaven for the truth of the
declaration,) I never did, or wished to do, ‘any act or thing prejudicial
or injurious:’ and though my heart assures me, that many
conscientious and good men have conformed to the test-act, yet my
own conscience always revolted at the abjuration part of it, and
prevailed with me to surrender every worldly consideration, that
should come in competition, or tempt me to a violation of it. This, sir,
was the only crime (if a crime it be) for which I now suffer
banishment from all that are most dear to me; with an interdict, “not
to return again.” I cannot therefore comprehend, how I can
consistently return, before this interdict is cancelled; or some
assurance given me, that I may again unite and live quietly with my
family, without being subject to an abjuration, which I cannot take.
The proper duties and profession of a minister of the gospel should,
in my opinion, never lead him into the field of politics. In conformity to
this opinion, every man who knows me can testify, that I never
degraded my function by intermeddling, directly or indirectly, in the
present unhappy contest: so that my own scruples would be a
stricter tie upon me, than any that could be made by oaths or tests.
You will excuse my troubling you on this subject, when I tell you, that
the kind manner in which you address me has drawn it upon you.”
197. It was Mr. Barton’s intention, when he left Pennsylvania, to

embark at New-York for England or Ireland: but his ill state of health,
which soon after ensued, prevented his leaving New-York.
198. This indulgence was obtained in April, 1780, from the

Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, chiefly through the
friendship of the late general Joseph Reed, then president of that
body; and, in pursuance of this passport, sanctioned by general
Washington, the desired interview was had with Mr. and Mrs. Barton,
at Elizabeth-Town, a very short time before the death of Mr. Barton.
199. The conditions proposed by the state of Virginia (and which

Pennsylvania considered as having a tendency to countenance
unwarrantable claims that might be made under the state of Virginia,
in consequence of pretended purchases or settlements, pending the
controversy,) were these; viz:—That the line, commonly called
Mason and Dixon’s line, be extended due west, 5° of long. to be
computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of
Pennsylvania, and that a meridian, drawn from the western extremity
thereof, to the northern limits of the said states, respectively, be the
western boundary of Pennsylvania, for ever: on condition, that the
private property and rights of all persons, acquired under, founded
on, or recognized by the laws of either country, previous to the 31st
of August, 1779, should be saved and confirmed to them, although
they should be found to fall within the other; and that in the decision
of disputes thereon &c. (see act of 1st April, 1784.)
200. He died at New-York, the 25th of May, 1780, aged only fifty
years; and was interred in the chancel of St. George’s Chapel, in that
city.
201. As Mr. Barton’s deportment and services, very early in life,

evinced his devotion to the happiness of his adopted country, the
writer hopes he may be permitted, without being chargeable with
great impropriety, to adduce the following evidences, among many
which might be exhibited, of the usefulness and public spirit of a
person, who was, during a long course of years, intimately
connected with, and a confidential friend of David Rittenhouse.
Annexed to a printed copy of “A letter, concerning the office and
duty of Protestant ministers, especially in times of public danger,
written to a clergyman on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, on general
Braddock’s defeat,”[201a] there is the following note:
“The gentleman to whom this was addressed,[201b] as well as some

ministers of other denominations, did, a few months after this, find it
necessary to appear at the head of their people, and were signally
instrumental in preventing some of the frontier counties from being
totally abandoned by their inhabitants.” See the Appendix to
“Discourses on public occasions in America: By William Smith, D. D.
Provost,” &c. who was the writer of the letter. It is dated,
“Philadelphia, August 21, 1755.”
Extract of a letter, dated London, January 10th, 1759, from the

Hon. Thomas Penn, Esq. to the Rev. Thomas Barton:—
“Since I received your last letter, I paid a visit to the present

Archbishop,[201c] and mentioned to him what you wished me to do. I
found he did not approve of your contemplated removal; but he
proposed, that twenty pounds sterling per annum should be added to
your salary: for, his grace observed, that a person so capable as you
are, to advise and assist the people in your neighbourhood,[201d]
could not be spared for any other mission: And, on that
consideration, the society[201e] had agreed to this augmentation of
your salary.”
On the 17th of June, 1767, Mr. Penn again wrote to Mr. Barton,
from London; as follows:
“I am much concerned to find, that the missionaries have suffered

so much, and that you are so uneasy in your situation as to have
asked leave to move into Maryland. The society has offered, or
intend to offer, an addition to your salary, or some other
encouragement, if you stay in Pennsylvania: and I have desired Mr.
Hamilton,[201f] who is upon his return, to talk to you on this affair,
before you take your resolution; as I hope and intend to make you a
present from me,[201g] if you do not put that design into execution.”
201a. This letter is contained in a volume of Dr. Smith’s Sermons, &c.
published in England in two editions, in the years 1759 and 1762; and is also
comprehended in an elegant edition of the Doctor’s works, republished in
Philadelphia a few years since.
201b. The Rev. Mr. Barton.
201c. Dr. Thomas Secker, then lately translated from the diocese of Oxford to
the archi-episcopal see of Canterbury: “a name,” as the author of the Pursuits of
Literature has justly observed, “never to be uttered but with reverence, as the great
exemplar of metropolitan strictness, erudition, and dignity.” This excellent prelate,
after most worthily sustaining the highest station in the English church more than
ten years, died in the year 1768.
201d. Mr. Barton’s residence was, at that time, in Redding township, York
county, then a frontier settlement of Pennsylvania.
201e. The Society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts.
201f. James Hamilton, Esquire.—This gentleman was lieutenant-governor of

Pennsylvania from the year 1748 to 1754—again, from 1759 to 1763—and
president of the proprietary and governor’s council, from the 6th of May, 1771, to
the 16th of October in the same year. He was a liberal patron of learning and
science.
“Est et Hamiltonus nomen venerabile, cujus

Intemerata fides.”——J. Beveridge, A.M.
201g. Mr. Penn actually gave to Mr. Barton, not long afterwards, the use of a
valuable farm, on which were three tenants, situated in the neighbourhood of
Lancaster. This farm, which was part of one of the proprietary-manors, Mr. Barton
held during his life.
202. While the credit of the loan-office bills of credit, emitted in

moderate sums by the assembly of Pennsylvania, was fully
supported, during the course of seventy years, the quantities of
paper-money issued at different times, by the legislative body of
Massachusetts, down to the year 1748, had then depreciated that
currency, for want of it being bottomed on sufficient funds, to one-
eleventh part of its nominal value. Fortunately, about that period, a
large sum in specie arrived from England, having been granted by
the British parliament to reimburse the monies expended by the
colonists in the expeditions against Louisburg and Canada. In
Massachusetts, this money was wisely applied by its legislature to
the redemption of the bills of credit of that colony, then in circulation;
which were sunk, in the succeeding year, at the rate of fifty shillings,
in those bills, for one ounce of silver. Thus, the mint-price of an
ounce of sterling silver being five shillings and two pence, the bills
were redeemed at the rate of nearly nine shillings and eight pence,
of their nominal value, for one shilling in English coin.
203. How different, in this respect, from that species of paper-

credit, which, during the American war, succeeded it, under the
denomination of continental money! But this had nothing but the faith
of government pledged for its redemption; while the loan-office bills
of credit were bottomed (as all government-paper ought ever to be)
on an appropriated, sufficient, and substantial fund. For want of such
a foundation, Dr. Morse remarks, that “The whole history of the
continental paper is a history of public and private frauds. Old specie
debts,” says he, “were often paid in a depreciated currency; and
even new contracts, for a few weeks or days, were often discharged
with a small part of their value. From this plenty, and the fluctuating
state of the medium, sprung hosts of speculators and itinerant
traders, who left their honest occupations for the purpose of
immense gains in a fraudulent business, that depended on no fixed
principles, and the profits of which could be reduced to no certain
calculations.” See his Geographical work.
204. Passed 26th February, 1773.
205. Passed 4th April, 1785.
206. Passed 11th April, 1793.
207. Passed 30th March, 1793.
208. Mr. Rittenhouse continued to hold the place of a trustee of the

loan-office more than ten years; but on the 1st of April, 1790, a law
was passed, by which all the powers and duties of the trustees of
that institution were transferred to, and vested in, the treasurer of the
state.
209. The loan-office system was kept up, in Pennsylvania, thirty

years after governor Pownall wrote.
210. Paper-money was not so well managed in some of the other

colonies, where it was issued in too large quantities, and its credit
not established on funds sufficiently stable and secure;[210a] a
circumstance which induced the parliament of Great-Britain to
interdict, for a time, further emissions of that sort of money, called
bills of credit, by the provincial legislatures.
Although the last emission of loan-office bills of credit, under the

colonial government of Pennsylvania, was made in the beginning of
the year 1773, the want of this succedaneum for gold and silver, as a
circulating medium of commerce commensurate to the encreased
population and trade of the country, was experienced some
considerable time before. In a letter written by the Hon. Mr. T. Penn
to the Rev. Mr. Barton, dated, London, June 17, 1767, the writer
says:
“Your account of the increase of the growth of hemp, gives me

great pleasure; and I think the demand there has been for wheat,
since the date of your letter, must have made the country people
rich, even those who were poor before: it will prevent people being
under the necessity of parting with their lands, and going to Carolina.
Their produce will always bring them money at Philadelphia,
notwithstanding there may be some more need for paper-money;
yet, when trade is brisk, it circulates faster, and a less quantity will
carry on a greater trade: however, I hope, in the next session of
parliament, we may get the law which prohibits our making any
more, repealed.”
The parliamentary restriction was, in fact, afterwards taken off; and

an effort was made, in the beginning of the year 1770, by the
legislature of Pennsylvania, to enact a loan-office law, for the
purpose of putting in circulation a further emission of paper-money:
but the measure then miscarried, in consequence of some
disagreement between the governor and the general assembly
respecting the right they severally claimed, of appointing the trustees
of the proposed loan-office.
210a. See Note 202.
211. The number of members in the Boston Academy is never to

exceed two hundred, nor to be less than forty. By being limited to so
moderate a number as the former, for the greater extreme, this
academy will be likely to select suitable persons for the honour of
fellowship, with the more discriminating circumspection.
212. Robert Patterson, Esq. Director of the Mint, and David

Rittenhouse Waters, Esq. a gentleman bred to the law, and a
grandson of the late Dr. Rittenhouse.
The decease of Mr. Waters happened soon after: he died on the

4th of September, 1813, at the premature age of twenty-two years.
Although he had just entered on the threshold of the world, this
excellent young man exhibited many proofs of extraordinary
attainments in literature and science, as well as of a superior genius.
He appeared to have inherited from his maternal grandfather,
congenial talents. In his life, his amiable disposition endeared him to
all who had an opportunity of knowing his virtues: in his death, not
only have his relatives and friends experienced an afflicting
bereavement, but his country has sustained the loss of a citizen of
great promise.
213. Although Mr. Ellicott is a native of Pennsylvania, and was a

citizen of that state until the British army took possession of
Philadelphia, in 1777, he resided in Baltimore county about eight
years after that event.
214. In the years 1767 and 1768.
215. The difference of 16′ 42″, between the latitude above

mentioned and the beginning of the 40th degree of north latitude,

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Full Chapter Organisational Responses To Social Media Storms An Applied Analysis of Modern Challenges Andy Phippen PDF

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Organisational Responses to Social

Media Storms An Applied Analysis of

Children’s Online Behaviour and Safety: Policy and

Modern Challenges to Past Philosophy Arguments and

Sustainable Food Procurement: Legal, Social and

The Impact of Fibre Connectivity on SMEs Benefits and

Managing TV Brands with Social Media An Empirical

Social Media in an English Village Daniel Miller

Quantified Storytelling: A Narrative Analysis of

The Disruptive Power of Online Education Challenges

“A very interesting analysis of the changing face of online safeguarding, how

ISBN 978-3-030-49976-1 ISBN 978-3-030-49977-8 (eBook)

Cover illustration: © Melisa Hasan

1 Organisational Responses to Social Media

2 The Case of Vanessa George and the Little Teds

3 Momo Week: A Perfect Social Media Storm

3.2 Failing to Learn from History—The Story

4 Teen Sexting: The Challenge for Secondary

5 The Warwick University Group Chat:

6 Conclusions: What Happens When People

6.3 Learning from Case Studies 87

Fig. 2.1 Google Trends of searches for “Vanessa George” in the

Organisational Responses to Social Media

Abstract Social media storms are a modern-day digital phenomenon,

Keywords Social media storms · Ethnography · Online safeguarding ·

1.1 The Rise of the Post-Truth Era

© The Author(s) 2020 1

1.2 Social Media Storms

1978; Kozma 1994; Kitzinger 2004); it is generally agreed that main-

to as ‘Object 4 – Child abuse, satanic rituals and paedophile registers’.

the depravity of their actions, once young people started to become

with many different stakeholders, such as young people, teachers, parents,

Kitzinger, J. (2004). Framing abuse: Media influence and public understanding

The Case of Vanessa George and the Little

Abstract Starting our trajectory through educational settings, this

Keywords Little Teds · Child sexual abuse · Case review ·

© The Author(s) 2020 11

relationship enables an access to children. George would send Blanchard

Transcripts obtained by the Guardian of Blanchard’s interviews with detec-

A Google search rendered hundreds of news headlines focusing on her

Nevertheless, the Parole Board found George no longer posed “a signif-

Families ‘tormented’ by nursery abuser’s silence.

convincing a parole board she no longer poses a ‘significant risk’ to chil-

2.2 Child Sexual Abuse

Therefore, as Palmer (2005) argues, the effects of CSA may be exacer-

Due to the possible effects of such knowledge, it is important to explore issues

However, as George refused to name the children she abused and, as

2.3 Social Constructions

exemplifies social and cultural constructions which are important to

degree of evidence of abuse before parties will report alleged offenses

2.4 More Than Technology

other users; replacing negative offline relationships; a form of “therapy”

Wilson pleaded guilty in June 2011 to two charges of rape, 16 of causing

images and three of distributing images of children (BBC News 2011).

Interestingly and perhaps most surprisingly given that there were an

2.5 Organisational Impact

The traumatic impact of CSA is well known to have lifelong affects.

167. In a preceding letter, Mr. Barton had sent him some

“I entreat you not to insist on my measuring heads with any

“I imagine you have mistaken me, with regard to the mathematical

169. See the preceding note.

170. The first law of Pennsylvania, for removing rocks, sandbars

172. The Marks, &c. are particularly described in the Pennsylvania