Children ‘failing to see bigger picture’
The footage, recorded on a mobile phone by a bystander and uploaded to the internet, lasts over two minutes and depicts two secondary school students wrestling. A crowd of up to 20, many in school uniforms, surround the girls, egging them on while also recording the bust-up.
“Young people are digital natives. Their lives are lived online,” said Maureen Griffin, the director of Internet Safety For Schools.
“They get together with people online, have their arguments online, and their break-ups online. But they are totally failing to see the bigger picture around living like this.
“I have no doubt that the teenagers who videoed this had no idea that this video would go viral. They thinking they’re just sending a message to one friend but they are totally unaware of how once they press ‘send’, they are losing control of the posting or video.
“It was very naive as that video will be remembered by people for years. This may have happened before but it wasn’t documented like this for all to see.”
Gardaí are investigating the incident and the girls have been suspended.
There has also been criticism of the bystanders.
Rita O’Reilly, CEO of Parentline, thought the video was “just plain sad”.
“It’s just so sad to see the girls fighting like this, apparently over a boy, and for all the world to see. It’s just sad.
“It is also extremely naïve. Kids just don’t seem to be getting the message that videoing this and posting it will there forever. Or maybe they don’t understand how this will affect them in the future. You have to wonder if this generation are the only generation who will so naive about their priv-acy? Will it turn around again in the future when this generation realise what they lost?”
Ciarán McMahon, a psychologist, said social media is helping to bring public awareness to issues such as violence by schoolchildren.
“Scenes like this one, while unpleasant, are probably a lot more common than we would like to think. What’s happening here is that, thanks to technology, a lot more people are witnessing it than would have in times past.
Because it was filmed, it will be much easier to identify the participants and so on, but more to the point, the issues raised by it can be brought to public awareness. It’s an unfortunate incident, but hopefully the silver lining will be a conversation about violence and bullying in our secondary schoolchildren.”
