Is MySpace and YouTube to Blame for Assault?
By now you’ve probably seen the video of a group of teen girls viciously beating a classmate. The attackers videotaped the beating so they could put it on MySpace and YouTube. Police have released three minutes of the tape, but the attack lasted at least 30 minutes. Six girls attacked this teen girl while two boys stood outside as lookouts. All eight have been arrested and seven of them are in custody. One of the boys is 18 so he went to jail rather than juvenile hall and was able to bail out. They have been charged with felony battery and false imprisonment. They are considering charging them as adults.
On the tape you see the girls pummeling their victim while taunting her, cursing at her and telling her to fight back. The girl never struck back. Instead she tried to protect herself with her arms and hands. The victim has bruises all over her face and body, a concussion and damage to her ear and eye, but she is expected to recover.
The assault took place in the home of one of the attacker’s grandmother (who was at work at the time). The grandmother said this has been hard on all of them because her home has been vandalized and their family has been threatened. All I can say to that is, “would you like some cheese with that whine?”
I hate to be so callous towards a grandmother, but you’ve got to be kidding me. Maybe if the families came out and apologized for the actions of their children and took responsibility for this tragedy, people would be more sympathetic to their situation. But the families aren’t doing that. In fact many of the parents of the attackers are basically making excuses for their kids. And that is just disgusting.
One of the mothers had the nerve to say the victim provoked the attack by threatening and insulting the girls on My Space. Seriously?!? There is not one single thing a person could write on MySpace that deserves a beat down like this girl got.
The mother of the eighteen-year-old young man said, “[The boys] weren’t really involved, I don’t know. I’m just overwhelmed by all of it. I don’t know why the girls have them involved.” But the boys were involved. They stood outside as the lookouts. The girls didn’t twist their arms. They could have left at any time. They could have called the police at any time. They could have gone to a neighbor for help at any time. They did nothing to help that girl. Granted they didn’t hit her themselves, but they sure didn’t stop it.
Another mother said her daughter warned the girl not to go in the house. When asked if she thought her daughter should have also called 9-1-1 she said, “My daughter should have picked up the phone and called the police. Yes, she did warn this girl not to go in the house, but I do believe my daughter should have called the police,” Notice how she got another dig in about how her daughter had warned the victim? She might as well have said, “Yes, she should have called the police BUT she did warn her and the girl went in anyway.”
Heck why don’t the parents just come out and say what they’re really thinking. They are really thinking the girl deserved it because she was being mean to their daughters on MySpace. Plus she was warned and went in to the house anyway.
This mother continued on saying the incident is being overblown by the police. She said, “First of all, the tape that was released is only three minutes long. That was the worst of it. My daughter is the one who turned the video tape over to the sheriff’s department for evidence. My daughter turned it over to them.”
The police said the beating lasted for 30 minutes. Prior to those three minutes the girl was ambushed in the bedroom where she was punched and had her head slammed in to the wall until she was unconscious. That sounds pretty bad to me. I seriously doubt the three minutes released was the worst of it.
Plus there goes the mother again saying her daughter turned over the tape, like her daughter is some hero for that. This was not something that happened in the heat of the moment. This was a planned attack. It was her daughter’s grandmother’s house. The daughter obviously was part of the planning. She was not some naive, young girl who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. She knew exactly what was going to happen and did nothing to stop it.
And these teenagers are not at all remorseful. When they were arrested they joked about not being able to go to the beach this spring break. One girl asked if she would be out in time to go to cheerleading practice. They clearly have no idea how much trouble they are in.
Since this happened many news outlets have asked if MySpace and YouTube are to blame for this violence. Would the girls not have done this if there was no YouTube for them to post the video to? Would this have never happened if there was no MySpace for the victim to post insults on?
Girls have been insulting each other for years. Long before the internet entered our homes. There’s always a girl who is prettier, has more friends, gets better grades, has a better boyfriend, or whatever else. There is always a girl who looked at another girl’s boyfriend wrong or touched his hand or smiled at him and a girl who doesn’t like it. Girl fights have been around a really long time. There were several girl fights when I was in high school. There would be fights today without MySpace and YouTube.
It’s ridiculous that the media keeps trying to find somebody to blame for tragedies like this. In my day it was heavy metal. Then it was violent movies. Then video games. Now it’s MySpace and YouTube. How about blaming these eight kids. And possibly their parents who obviously struggle with what’s right and what’s wrong.
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15 opinions for Is MySpace and YouTube to Blame for Assault?
Vicki
Apr 10, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I agree everyone is always looking to place the blame on anything but where it should go. After hearing some of the comments these parents have made, it should be easy to see where the blame lies. After all the apple doesnt fall to far from the tree
Judy
Apr 10, 2008 at 3:37 pm
All of the things Christie said are true. And the things that happened are horrible. Is UTube or My Space to blame? Not as such. But is the whole accusitory and demeaning behavior in the media to blame? Yes, and the parents who allow their children to observe without teaching moral and spiritual values. Life sentences for these girls? No, but enough time and counseling that they look at life permanently changed.
Jonno
Apr 10, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Very well said.
You should be completely aware of what is a good way to treat people by this age and what is a mean, nasty cowardly way. All blame here is with the parents, even with the considerable effects of peer pressure to do the deed in the first place, how is it none of them seem to be able to grasp the magnitude of their impending situation with the Police and the effect on future employability? THAT alone shows very naive parenting.
Cause and effect, Reep what you so, Karma etc Do these kids know anything about real life?
Do their folks?
Pillow
Apr 10, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I completely agree. I had been attacked like that once myself. If that girl would of fought back she would of gotten it worse. She was half the size of the main girl shown in that video. If that was my child who was part of this I would beat my kid myself then tell the cops to lock him or her up for a good long time. I love my kids but I will not tolerate that type of behavior. So what if something was said about you, it wouldn’t upset you if it was not true. So change the way you are, or ignore it. I do feel for the Grandmother however, I am certain that if she would of been home this wouldn’t of happened at her house, but it probably would of happened elsewhere. When I was attacked it was two girls, if I would of fought back I would of gotten it worse. What happened to those girls? Not a damn thing! this was over twenty years ago, I did nothing to those two girls other then try to be their friend, but I was nerd, geek, whatever and they took advantage of that. I can honestly say though, do it to me today and you won’t be able to walk away. It is so unfortunate but perhaps we all should look into home schooling. I know Florida offers internet schooling for high schoolers and others. I feel that perhaps that is what we need to move on to, internet schooling. I am certain their will be bullying there too, but at least our children will be safe. Or heck give them a huge mean dog to take with them everywhere. Or do we all need to carry tasers?
Dave
Apr 10, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Are car makers responsible for drunk drivers? If we try to say that YouTube or MySpace are responsible for this then we’ve lost all hope. Who is responsible? How eight teenagers and the parents that didn’t teach them any better? The story is now that they could face life in prison for kidnapping, battery and tampering with a witness. Now, life in prison would be a little harsh, in my opinion, but 5-7 years behind bars wouldn’t be over the top. It would be a well deserved reward for their actions. As soon as we put the word “personal” back in front of the word “responsibility” we’ll start to make inroads against this kind of act. No one is to blame for these animals and their behavior but themselves. End of story.
Victoria
Apr 10, 2008 at 6:44 pm
It is not the reason behind the assault, in fact it is a very naive response to say that technological progression is the reason for this assault. It is a way out for the parents to blame something else, if not myspace, then video games, if not video games, the media, there is always something that people want to blame, rather than to look at what is going on in their homes. I use youtube and I have a facebook, have I beaten the shit out of someone because of gossip or a falling out? No. Because I was brought up the right way.
Julie
Apr 10, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Do I think these criminals need to be in jail? Of course. For about 5 - 10 years. Maybe in that time they will realize the seriousness of their crime. Do I blame the parents in part for this? Of course. They should have taught their kids that there are consquences for criminal behavior and that they can’t get away with it. They should have also taught them not to harm people. Or even the golden rule “Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you”.
No, youTube and Myspace are not responsible for this. But I ask you this….what idiot parent allows their child to go on these sites to begin with? HOw is it that parents are unaware that their children are on these sites? Our internet connection is in the living room. From my couch I can see ever site my daughter is on, and she knows it. She also knows that sites such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are blocked on our computer, her friends computers and her school computer and if I ever found out she had been on them she will be severly punished. What they heck happened to “parenting” instead of “letting child run amok”?
Ann
Apr 10, 2008 at 8:50 pm
While YouTube & MySpace are not to blame per se, they are the vehicle that kids are using to show off how tough they are. Take away the vehicle & you’ll still have fights, but they won’t be the “showcase fights” that this media has created. And of course the parents deserve the brunt of the blame - I’m all for making parents criminally responsible for the actions of their kids!
Liza's Eyeview
Apr 11, 2008 at 1:33 am
very well said, and i agree.
Karen Syed @ Echelon Press
Apr 11, 2008 at 2:13 am
I am not a parent, but this case has intrigued and disgusted me. I taught preschool for 15 years and once had a 2 year old pull a playdough knife on me and threaten to cut me. They start to learn young.
I think it is easy to lay blame here, there is only one reason these kids are the way they are, they are alowed to be so. There are too many great parents out there raising well-behaved and considerate kids. It can be done.
No Internet venue could be to blame for this, if that were not an option they simply would have sent it via their cell phones. Close all the cell phone companies?
What bothers me the most is that the reporters and such are so pleased that the video never made it on to MySpace or YouTube. Good job, that just means that CBS (who seems to be the one using it the most) got great exposure with those three minutes of coverage that that police worked so hard to keep off those TWO social networking sites as opposed to every media/news venue in the WORLD! Oh good for them.
It’s important that more kids with no adult supervision be able to see how to torment each other and still get their 15 minutes of fame.
Vicki
Apr 11, 2008 at 5:10 am
As a mother of a 17 yr. old daughter myself, I know firsthand how vicious girls are to one another. There have been a few times when I’ve had to walk over to her computer and hit the OFF button because of the MySpace drama. Is it MySpace’s responsibility to monitor my daughter and her friends? NO, it’s mine. I don’t like MySpace for the simple fact that it is sometimes used as a format for bad behavior between teens, however; decent morals and human compassion should be taught at home, by the parents. I came home from work and made my daughter watch the video. She was horrified, and although it was hard to watch, I wanted her to learn a lesson about what can happen between “friends” as a result of the drama that goes on with MySpace. Combine teenaged girl drama, an unsensored format and a lack of parental guidance and intervention, it creates situations just like this one…and they’re happening every minute in this country. I’m glad these girls will be tried as adults. They knew exactly what they were doing and had no remorse at all. I hope the victim will fully recover, and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.
Aurelia
Apr 11, 2008 at 8:57 am
WOW Christine!! You said everything I’ve been trying to say all darn week!! I can’t believe how people pass along the blame when it boils down to the children acting irrationally and the parents acting just as damn bad if not WORSE!
Stephen
Apr 11, 2008 at 10:17 am
First, the girls kidnapped and beat someone. Regardless of their age and sex they should be tried and convicted as people who knowingly commited that crime should be. They knew what they were doing and did it anyway - don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Second, there are so many beating/fighting videos on youtube. I think originally they might have been people who had a camera at the right time but generally speaking it isn’t a coincidence that filming is going on at the same time of the fight. Are we such a violent society that this is condoned? I mean, we can talk about youtube but let’s look at Ultimate Fighting matches. They used to be on PPV only but you can watch any number of these things now on all channels. Jackass and all the other bullshit shows that promote this random violence as well as our support of these things are what I think make kids do this crap. There have always been fights, there will always be beef but the glamourizing of it by those at an impressionable age permeates our society. I’m a big guy who grew up on some tough streets but the people I fear the most are the teen kids who have no sense of reality and who see things in this violent extreme. I know I’ll have to scrap with this generation because that’s not uncommon. We need to intervene or this won’t be an isolated occurance (if it is).
KenS
Apr 11, 2008 at 11:09 am
If you are going to blame MySpace and YouTube — you have to blame heroin and meth. Do you blame the drugs, or do you blame the person and those around (i.e. parents) for not intervening when the crime occurs. Glad to see a bunch of people who get it. Remember that kid that committed suicide from misunderstood black sabbath lyrics… why blame Ozzy - the effing idiot kid killed himself because of a song. what a moron. Just like these idiot girls beat someone up because of something the girl said on MySpace… hey guess what - a LOT of people are going to say a LOT of bad things about you in your life. No need to freak out… :)
Terry
Apr 12, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Absolutely their parents have played a role in not teaching morality to these kids. Parents who are not furious at this behavior are ignorant.
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