Gardaí Hire Teenagers To Help Crack Emojis Codes Used By Criminals On Whatsapp

FOLLOWING the Government’s decision to update laws that would allow the Gardaí access to individuals’ Facebook, Email and Whatsapp messages, some 300 teenagers have been hired to make sense of all the various emojis would-be criminals are using.

“We’re on the front line here, with officers working their arses off to prevent bloodshed on the streets, we need every bit of help we can get,” Garda spokesperson Garda Cybil Lafferty explained to WWN, “and that’s why we’ve Jack and Aine here, two 13-year-olds who are fluent in emojis, we’ll be hiring 298 more in the coming months”.

Emojis are becoming a more frequent sight on social media apps and are being used by criminals as part of a secret code which allows them to communicate and organise various misdeeds without the fear of Gardaí understanding them.

“We were looking at some young gang lad’s Whatsapp and it was an emoji of money, a plane, and a gun followed by a location and time and a picture of a young rough looking fella, we just couldn’t make heads nor tails of it,” Garda Lafferty explained, further highlighting the need to hire 300 tech savvy teens.

Under careful supervision, the teenagers will be tasked with separating personal, non-crime communications, usually involving men sending pictures of a smiley face and an Aubergine followed by the text ‘fancy coming over?’ from more pressing communications involving criminal activity.

“We’re only too happy to help, the intended meaning of various emoji faces is still a hot topic of debate and requires a keen eye to decipher if someone was ‘only messing’ or being ‘dead serious’,” shared newly installed head of the Gardaí Emoji Interpretation Unit, 15-year-old Ava Kelly.