Admin of the Lincoln Girl Gang Amber Marshall speaks out against comments about the unsafe nature of the group that was created in November 2018.
When the group was first created there was the belief that those who were part of the group did overshare personal information at times.
One member of the group said; “Girls, this group is an amazing idea however it is being more common for women to be involved in crimes. Mainly to entice girls. We should be just as cautious when women are approaching as well as a man, I think there should be a safe word made for them when you need to approach a group of girls if you feel unsafe or uncomfortable at night to ensure this doesn’t happen.”
Although the page is a closed group, anyone who requested to be added when it first launched would be accepted, as long as they are girls who are from Lincoln or any surrounding areas close to the area.
However, Amber speaks out against these beliefs on the safety of the group, instead of accepting anyone the moderators who work behind the scenes of the page help to accept those who request to be added into the group.
Amber said: “I understand everyone’s concerns, you never know if someone is completely who they say they are or not, however, I have brought on a team of moderators and they help me in admitting girls to the group.”
“What we do is look at how many profile pictures the person has, we look at when the profile was created, we look at if they are centered around Lincoln if they have mutual friends of girls in the group and then we will accept them. If we have any queries, then we will message them or discuss it.”
All the admins and moderators of the Girl Gang page advises members to be careful when sharing their information on the page. Their advice would be to post about queries on the page, like walking home alone or if they are worried or concerned about something and if then and only when they are comfortable too they can openly give out their address privately if they feel okay to do so in with a certain person.
Amber provided an example of what she would do if she needed to post anything onto the page, which could involve revealing her address.
“I would put on the group I’m walking from Monks Road to West parade area would anyone like to call or meet me and if I were to meet someone I would message them first and I would make sure that they are who they say they are and then I wouldn’t meet them until then. So that is what I would advise for my girls.”
“With accepting girls into the group, I tend to look if they go to the University of Lincoln or BGU, I look at if they are centered in Lincoln. I also accept girls who have graduated from Lincoln and from surrounding areas, so Saxby, Sleaford, close areas as the will be girls who are from those areas who will come to Lincoln on a night out and may need some assistance after a night out so I accept them. But from further areas, I don’t tend to accept.”