Aside from the catch all offence of “incitement to or of X” which seems to be a favourite of our thin skinned society, I am left wondering exactly what the hell is “charged with improper use of a social networking site”?

Coming from the BBC, I suppose it is probably more to do with the infantile writing style which permeates the place than anything the police have actually charged someone with but it still makes for rather strange reading :

Three teenage boys – two aged 17 and the other 16 – have been charged with incitement to [sic] hatred over the alleged burning of a poppy.

A social networking site published a photograph which appeared to show two of them carrying out the act.

The incident, which happened in Coleraine, was reported to the police on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old was also charged with improper use of a social networking site.

All three were in court on Wednesday.

I would imagine the actual charge was along the lines of “charged under the Communications Act, of sending a message by means of a public communications network that was grossly offensive” but that would have spolied the one sentence per paragraph haiku style that we pay so much money for under threat of imprisonment.