Emo 'army' protests against Mail

More than a hundred teenagers have been camped outside the offices of the Daily Mail today, protesting at the paper's coverage of what's known as 'Emo' music.

After the suicide of the teenage emo fan Hannah Bond in September last year, the paper ran articles calling the music a 'sinister cult' of which parents should be very wary.

But today lovers of bands such as My Chemical Romance took to the streets.



Rallied by an internet call to arms, it's a sign of the times that many of these teenagers are internet buddies who were meeting for the first time today.

They've come from all over Britain. Still at school, many had been dropped off by their parents. They're here to stand up for emo music - or to give it its full title emotional.

Hailing from America, My Chemical Romance is the main poster band for this music. The daily mail has highlighted the genre as a potential danger to Britain's youth after the suicide of Hannah Bond, a 13-year-old emo fan from Kent.

But earlier this month Hannah Bond's mother told an inquest her daughter had changed after becoming a devout follower of emo music.

She was quoted by the Mail when they defended their coverage as balanced, and above all in the public interest.

Pointing out the coroner found: "the Emo overtones concerning death - and associating it with glamour - very disturbing."

And that Mrs Bond believed: "In Emo it is a very glamorous death to hang yourself."

But those who cover this music argue it actually empowers troubled youth.

16-year-old anni smith is one such example. She is now schooled at home after having trouble fitting in to regular education. And she says emo is a support system online. It's always been there, but parental and establishment fear that music is a bad influence on the young. But in recent times fears that music exacerbates teenage angst has taken a more sinister turn. Most recently Marilyn Manson was accused of influenicng the Columbine killers.

But emo followers outside the Daily Mail today argue that music never forces anybody to do anything.

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