To be honest, I haven't heard of that. I'm guessing it's something about young Americans getting into trouble that has some pretty bad long-term stuff? Yeah, I should be ok. I just kind of walk around, look at the sights, and do my research on rough areas of cities (my dad is a cop, so that has been drilled into me over my lifetime). If something does happen, I can usually adapt my personality to the type of person I'm talking with and make an effort at Spanish that impresses the vast majority of native speakers (of course, that wouldn't help much in HKG).