[2] Wong Man Tat Parco wrote a thesis on the usage of Cantonese slang by young people in Hong Kong.
Bolton and Hutton said "[t]he use of chòu háu is often seen as a marker of criminality of triad-membership, and official agencies tend to view the spread of chòu háu into the mainstream of Hong Kong society and its media as indicating a general crisis, as being symptomatic of a rising tide of social disorder and alienation.
"Moh lei tau" became popular with younger people and secondary school students, and the groups began to use it.
Some prominent members of Hong Kong society believed that the slang was lowering the quality of the language and asked youth to stop using it.
Kingsley Bolton and Christopher Hutton, the authors of "Bad Boys and Bad Language: Chòu háu and the Sociolinguistics of Swear Words in Cantonese," said that Hong Kong authorities have far less tolerance of vulgar words than in western societies such as the United Kingdom and that aspect "seems to distinguish the situation" in Hong Kong.