Young boys YouTubed into fighting
26 Mar 2008 | 17:25 GMT
Unhappy slapping
A VIOLENT VIDEO ON YouTube is getting the knickers of social workers and police all in a twist by showing footage of two children aged between 10 and 12 encouraged to beat each other up.
The BBC reports that the "appalling" footage shows the children punching, kicking and headbutting each other as an anonymous male shouts at them to become increasingly violent and to hit harder. At one point he even shouts "You're fighting like girls. Fight properly".
The video, which was posted on the video sharing website five days ago, seems to have been shot in a bedroom, believed to be in Crawley, West Sussex. Police have asked anyone who might have information about those involved to come forward and tell them.
There is also another video on the site, involving the same two kids, in what appears to be the same bedroom, in which one of the little boys asks the filmer “Kicking is allowed, isn't it?". At another point in the film one of the boys punches the other in the face and yells “he’s crying!”
The police are now treating both videos as evidence of child cruelty and criminal behaviour by an adult and Det Sgt Richard Harris of the Sussex Police emphasised that they would be working with West Sussex Young Persons' Services “to safeguard the welfare of the children and prosecute any adults involved in criminal behaviour".
YouTube promised to co-operate with the police and said that although YouTube was “used by millions of people in very positive ways” (porn?), that there was also sadly “a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules". µ
L’Inq
BBC
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