Fearless Scotland

Young people urged to back their community this Halloween & Bonfire Night 

Fearless, the youth service of Crimestoppers, has today launched a new campaign to keep teenagers across Scotland safe and encourage them to make positive choices this autumn. 

Focusing on Halloween and Bonfire Night, the charity is encouraging young people to remember that ‘communities work best when they work together’ and that they have an important role to play in that. 

Designed in partnership with young people at Craigroyston Community High School in Edinburgh, the campaign is running across Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok – all key social media platforms most commonly used by young people.

The initiative aims to get young people thinking about not just about the impact fireworks misuse and deliberate fire-raising has on the communities they live in, but how they can take positive action. This may include attending their local youth centres to do activities, volunteering or donating food or clothes they’ve outgrown to help others in their area.

The charity is urging young people to not feel forced into silence for fear of stigma or reprisal, but to speak up with information about fireworks misuse, deliberate fire-raising and other crimes happening in their local area at fearless.org. This dedicated website is for young people to pass on information 100% anonymously – this means that their IP address won’t be tracked and nobody will ever know the information came from them. By taking a positive decision that will never lead back to them, they are making their community safer for everyone.

Lyndsay McDade, Fearless Scotland Manager at Crimestoppers, said: 

“We know that young people all across Scotland want their communities to be safe, positive places to live. It’s therefore important, as adults, that we give them ways to achieve that goal.

“The vast majority of young people are absolute assets to their communities - the young people who helped to co-design this campaign, are brilliant examples of this. There are, of course, a small number who sometimes make negative choices, and it’s important that we’re clear about ways that they can turn that around to make more positive ones. This includes, highlighting the harm that anti-social behaviour brings such as those involving fireworks and deliberate fires–also included in the campaign.

“On our website fearless.org, young people can find a ‘positive action’ section on our autumn page, with ideas of pro-social things to do as well as vital information about trick or treating safely and fireworks legislation. They can also use our website to speak up 100% anonymously about who is responsible for fireworks misuse and deliberate fire-raising.”