9:52pm Tuesday 8th April 2008
By Simon Barrett
A teacher has accused video-sharing websites of fuelling a growing culture of violence among youngsters.
Dr Stuart Newton, a biology teacher at Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College, said websites such as YouTube needed to take greater responsibility for their own content.
His call comes as The Argus uncovered a sick new video on YouTube showing children fighting.
The footage shows one child stamping on another's head, while in another clip two schoolboys throw punches at each other.
Dr Newton, of Woodlands Close, Peacehaven, has been a teacher for more than 40 years.
Earlier this year he was invited to Downing Street to meet with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to discuss his views on yob culture.
He said: "Bullies revel in being able to humiliate their victims. Websites like YouTube allow them to humiliate totally and utterly and that needs to be addressed.
"Of course the websites say all they can do is monitor the content, so we are hitting our heads against a brick wall.
"The attitude that this is just what boys do needs to be overcome. We are becoming a society that condones violence.
"This video shows children being brutalised and needs to be taken seriously."
The latest video contains seven different fight scenes shot in Hastings and St Leonards.
It has been carefully edited to the tune of a hip hop gangster rap song containing graphic swearing.
It has now been removed from the site by YouTube, but the video can be seen at theargus.co.uk in a bid to help police identify anyone responsible.
Hastings and Rye MP Michael Foster said he was "appalled" by the footage.
The discovery comes just a fortnight after The Argus uncovered two videos showing bloodied schoolchildren, both aged 12, fighting in a Crawley bedroom.
The boys are seen punching, kicking, headbutting and stamping on each other as an adult goads them on.
A 21-year-old man has been arrested and questioned by Sussex Police on suspicion of aiding and abetting an assault but has since been released on bail.
A YouTube spokeswoman said: "YouTube is a community site used by millions of people in very positive ways.
"Sadly, as with any form of communication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules.
"On YouTube, these rules prohibit content like pornography or gratuitous violence. When people see content they think is inappropriate they can flag it up and our staff then review it.
"If the content breaks our terms then we remove it and if a user repeatedly breaks the rules we disable their account."
Detective Inspector Paul Phelps, from Hastings CID, said: "We are investigating this video and trying to establish whether the scenes are genuine, or staged as a publicity stunt.
"If they are genuine I would hope they were crimes reported to us, in which case we may already be investigating them.
"I am also very keen to speak to the individual who posted this video to the website and would urge that person to come forward."
Anyone with information should call Sussex Police on 0845 6070999 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
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