News: In Norwood Middle School, in a suburb in Ohio, a 13-year-old eighth grader beat up a 12-year-old girl in the locker room. The 13-year-old had her friend videotape the beating and it was later posted on YouTube. After much complaining, the victim’s parents and school officials eventually got the video removed from YouTube. But it still exists in a news video posted by a Cincinnati news station.
Video contains violence: viewer discretion advised
Analysis: This is a serious problem. Schools need to investigate why teenagers are engaging in this kind of behavior and develop a “zero tolerance” policy. And YouTube needs to get more involved, too. If you type in “girl fight” on YouTube, there seem to be numerous videos of young girls fighting. (I’m guessing there are videos of guys fighting, too.) I haven’t watched all these fight videos (it’s possible some have already been removed), but here’s one video that is shockingly still up on YouTube. The video was posted a year ago on YouTube and has over 880,000 views. I debated whether even to include the video, but I concluded that it may help to focus attention on what’s really going on.
Video contains violence and profanity: viewer discretion advised
I’m not sure what exactly is the right answer. Obviously, you want to stop these fights from happening. But if you can’t, there is some benefit in having a video — it’s powerful evidence that law enforcement can later use to catch and prosecute the perpetrators.
October 11, 2007 at 7:38 pm |
How has society degenerated this far that young women now engage in this kind of uncivilized and ridiculous behavior?
October 11, 2007 at 7:42 pm |
[...] I came across a post about girl fighting in middle school, and the following video was embedded to showcase the issue. Serious Girl Fight From [...]
October 23, 2007 at 9:29 am |
The fact is girl fights are more popular now because of the internet.
July 8, 2008 at 2:21 am |
I see nothing wrong with two girls fighting as long as they are of age. Even if they are not, humans have been fighting for centuries. Now we have the means to view it enmasse.
Some of us enjoy this stuff. If you don’t like it, don’t watch.
August 17, 2008 at 2:31 pm |
I am greatly concerned about the violence against children that is posted on Youtube. Worse, the violence isn’t always confined to Youtube; sometimes the event is reported by the local news and the TV station broadcasts the Youtube debacle to God and everybody. When I called my local new station to ask why they had to show a girl getting beat up on Youtube on the five o’clock news, they responded that it was to “increase awareness.” Awareness, indeed. I would have preferred to have been made aware of the heart-breaking story by hearing about it, not by having it re-played in my living room. Whether the perpetrators are famous or infamous, they receive the fame they were looking for when they committed the crime and then posted it.