Wikipedia labels gang scandal ‘moral panic’

The title of the Wikipedia article on Muslim grooming gangs in Britain was changed this week to include the phrase ‘moral panic’. The name, previously titled “Muslim grooming gangs in the UK”, was changed on October 7 to “Grooming gang moral panic in the UK”.

Each Wikipedia article has a ‘Talk’ feature that allows users to request and discuss edits. The change was confirmed by a user named “Scepter,” who wrote: “There is a consensus that, if the article is to be kept (and for now it should be kept), that ‘moral panic’ should be included in the title of the article to reflect how the topic is covered in reliable sources.”

The ‘grooming gangs’ scandal, in which groups of mainly Pakistani-origin men sexually abused young girls in many British cities, often without prosecution, first came to public attention in 2010 with the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal. This was quickly followed by reports of similar widespread networks of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale and Telford. In 2014, the groundbreaking Jay Report found that between 1997 and 2013, 1,400 girls were sexually abused in Rotherham by gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani origin.