Susan Manheimer, the San Mateo police chief near Redwood City, northern California, told local television news that gang leaders, often those just released from prison, were using sites such as MySpace and YouTube as a way to reach children.
"We're seeing … the resurgence of some of the gang members coming back from prison looking more and more to those middle schoolers and the younger kids to recruit them," said Ms Manheimer, who is also in charge of the San Mateo County gang taskforce.
Young people would download gang insignia on their mobile phones or music with lyrics that refer to gangs by name such as the Norteños, a coalition of Latino gangs in Northern California, she said.
Ms Manheimer added that children would get into online discussions that sometimes escalated to vicious threats.
"The type of profiling they're doing of themselves (by downloading gang-related content) makes them prey to predators and also at odds with and challenging other gangs," she told CBS 5 local news.
Be aware - and know what your kids are looking at.
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