UK teachers have made a call to ban YouTube from British schools. They claim that YouTube makes it easier for bullies to send abusive e-mails and texts to their victims. This relates to a blog I posted about happy slapping in February. You can read the original BBC News article to get more details.
Hmmm... My initial thoughts are that shutting down access to YouTube (or any other web based social networking space) merely shifts bullying activities onto another medium. Try mobile phones, home pc e-mail, the plain old telephone, notes passed in class or simply the 'walk home' from school. The only way to stop bullying is to segregate children in individual plastic bubbles each with their own oxygen supply. Even then there would probably be taunts that some children's plactic bubbles are bigger, uglier or more 'gay' than others.
It's a fact of life, and children will bully each other as a part of the natural learning process of growing up. Don't misunderstand me. Bullying should not be tolerated in any shape or form (I speak as a victim on many occasions, both at school and at work, and it's not funny), but let's not go laying the blame at the door of YouTube. Doing so means you are in danger of sinking to the level of Andrew Keen.
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