Do video sharing sites like You Tube encourage violence and crime? To what extremes would one go to earn themselves a few minutes of fame?
Over the past couple of weeks, there have been incidents of young girls being seriously injured due to being attacked so the attack could be posted on You Tube. The first attack occurred in Florida where eight teenagers, six girls and two boys, brutally beat a 16-year-old girl. Their motive? To publish the video on You Tube. The video can be viewed here (please be aware that the following video clip contains violence and should be viewed with caution): http://www.wftv.com/video/15817645/index.html.
The second victim was a 12-year-old girl in Indiana. Her attackers were between the ages of 12 and 14. I even found another video of a 21-year-old man forcing kids to fight to post it on You Tube (link below).
This seems to be working its way to some sort of epidemic. Since when is it acceptable for a group of girls to attack a single girl, regardless of the motive? What is changing in our society that is teaching our your girls that this is tolerable? Is the opportunity to show these videos on the Internet to blame or would these teenagers have attacked if they had not been filming?
In the case of the 16-year-old, authorities say that the beating was done in retaliation for things posted on the girl’s My Space account. Does this make My Space responsible for the increase in violence? One could argue that if My Space accounts were censored to prevent any negativity from being published that the teenage retaliation fights would decrease. However, is this a violation of our First Amendment right to free speech? Where do we draw the line?
Telling a teenage girl to “turn the other cheek” and not pay any attention to rumors and names directed to them on the Internet is nearly impossible. It would definitely not be able to ignore accusations of “slut” and “whore” and other derogatory remarks posted about me for the entire world to see. Someone else’s freedom of speech should make it acceptable for another’s reputation to be destroyed. On the other hand, rounding up a group of eight others to jump one girl does not exactly seem like a just punishment either.
What do we need to do to stop this cyber-bashing from turning physical? And what about the fight videos that have no motive except for gaining their few minutes of fame? Should extreme censorship be introduced or should those sharing the videos be prosecuted, regardless of whether they created the video or not? Wouldn’t limiting the distribution of these videos deeply and forever scar our civil rights?
On the one hand, action needs to be taken to reduce the violence, but on the other how much do we want to let the government control our private lives? Giving authorities a free pass to censor and press charges to anything and everything shared on the web may lead places we don’t necessarily want to go. For example, some may take a funny picture of their sleeping baby by putting empty alcoholic beverage bottles around the child. Would this lead to the arrest of the parents simply because of what the picture implies even though no laws were broken? Are there any other solutions that can stop this video violence and blog bashing?
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1310947,00.html
http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=243821.
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Oh my God that was terrible. And like the average stupid person, I had to see the video. I hope that girl gets some justice.
Why are people so effing crazy?! I wish they'd just take a step back and look at what they've become, so they'd realize what horrible things they've done. And how can you stop it? If people want to, they'll keep posting stuff like this. They'll keep bashing each other on blogs or MySpace.
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Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
I read that those kids in Florida may be facing 20 years in prison. It would definitely serve them right - an 8 on 1 fight is completely insane. Some of them are also facing kidnapping charges since they forced the girl in a car after they beat her. You would think kids would learn from their mistakes, but even after they were arrested, more videos of fights were posted - one on YouTube and another on PhotoBucket. I can't see what kind of satisfaction they can possible receive from injuring another so severely.
No they don't. They encourage kids to film them. We act like this violence is new or worse, it really isn't. It's a little worse, but the reason we know so much about it and make a huge deal about it, is because it is accessible online. Twenty years ago, this would have made an uproar in a community, but no where else. The only thing myspace and youtube do is allow a larger audience, not make it worse.
You don't think that being humiliated in front of a larger audience does not lead to more violent retaliation?
I'm not so sure. If terrible rumors about me were posted for the entire world to see, I would fear that people I may meet in the future would have access to read these comments and pass judgment on me before they even meet me. I would hate to have to defend untrue rumors to strangers just because of something they may have read on MySpace.
I guess I am just trying to put myself in the shoes of not only the victim, but those who attacked. To be honest, I cannot really choose a side, but I think the ability to publish cruel and hateful things on the Internet could be an underlying cause to the rage and anger in the youth of today. It's one thing to spread rumors in school, it's common for middle schoolers and high schoolers to be cruel, but the Internet has made it possible to spread these rumors around the entire world. Can you imagine having a pen pal on the other side of globe who googles your name just to find your name slandered by classmates? Wouldn't it be awful to have to defend yourself every time you make a simple introduction to someone else?
I believe technology is a good thing, but alot of awful things have happened. Although before technology awful things happened, they weren't displayed for the whole world to view. I honestly believe now that since teens and adults have more of a chance to get 15 minutes of fame they are more likely to do crazy things to become famous.
I chose not to watch the video because I have seen my "friends" gang up on a guy. They stomped on his head, and really hurt him, I did nothing but was still questioned by the police. That still bothers me. Sorry I didn't watch it. Good information though. This is disturbing.
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
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I don't blame you for not wanting to watch the video. I should probably ass a disclaimer that the clip is very graphic and should be viewed with caution.
Double post - OOPS!
I mean the whole entire world can see what they have done. Dr. Phil will probably have a show about it if he hasn't already. It's desturbing to think that myspace and You Tube would even would even allow these young adults to be showing such violence on the web. I personally think it's totally wrong and that everyone involved be prosecuted. Even the owners of Myspace and You Tube for not reporting the abuse and allowing this to go on for so long.