Irish Examiner View: Social media outlets profiting from footage of attack on schoolboy

Companies getting increased traffic as a result of that footage are benefiting materially from sharing the image of a boy being assaulted, a business model which should fill them with shame

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar sent a message of support following the homophobic attack.

By now, most readers will be aware of the horrifying attack on a secondary school student in Co Meath. 

The matter is under investigation by gardaí, who have released a statement confirming that the boy in question received serious facial injuries in the homophobic attack, which took place in Navan on Monday afternoon.

This bare description hardly does justice to the seriousness of the assault. Many readers will have seen the footage circulated on social media of the boy being beaten, and there has been an outpouring of sympathy for him online, including a message of support sent by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The gardaí have also commented on that footage of the
attack, asking “out of respect for the victim in this case we would request that people refrain from sharing this video”,
a call which has been echoed by politicians.

This is eminently sensible, and the boy concerned is certainly entitled to his privacy. Unfortunately, sharing such footage is now almost a reflexive move for many people, who seem incapable of examining either their own motivations or the ramifications of their actions.

For instance, is sharing footage of an assault like this truly showing solidarity with the injured party? If we circulate the video among people we know are we then complicit in the
assault, even at a remove?

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Those sharing this footage should have regard for the boy in question, clearly, but others also have questions to answer.

The social media companies getting increased traffic as a result of that footage need to look at themselves. They are benefiting materially from sharing the image of a schoolboy being assaulted, a business model which should fill them with shame. The youngster in question, an innocent party
entirely, must at least know by now that he has the support of decent people everywhere.