Dr. Xanthe Weston

So I did wonder whether they don't actually necessarily want anything from these specific businesses.

It's not about we want a ransom from you particularly.

It's just about putting the fear of God in all of these businesses.

hospitality businesses so that when somebody does come knocking on your door and say, you know, we want some money, sell these products, you're not going to say no because it's like, look what happened to your competitor down the street.

We firebombed them three times in two weeks.

So it's a warning.

Is this a warning that these demands are coming?

You can harm a small group of people, but do it in such a way that you cause fear amongst a whole city.

So there's this whole scary online world and our young people are caught up in it in a myriad of ways.

And some of those ways are criminal.

And I don't want to scare all the parents out there, but some of those ways are criminal.

And these kids are committing serious acts of harm against themselves, against other people.

And they will be the ones held to account when actually we need to be finding out who's organizing it, who's orchestrating it, who's generating it.

Absolutely.

It's not.

A lot of the kids who are committing these criminal acts, like as part of these gang, you know, these firebombings, they're vulnerable kids too.

So they're the ones who are maybe not in school.

They may have already had contact with the police.

They may be in out-of-home care.

So they're the ones who already don't have adults who are there protecting them, intervening.