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Teachers call for YouTube's closure
01/08/07 - Sites such as YouTube should be shut down in order to cut down on cyberbullying at schools according to teachers. The call was made during the annual conference of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT).PAT delegates advised that the internet and text messages can be used to continue the bullying outside of school hours.
As part of the motion members of PAT spoke about times when videos have been posted on video-sharing sites, such as YouTube, of pupils and even teachers being attacked or humiliated.
The motion, which was backed by delegates, calling for the closure of such websites was proposed by Kirsti Paterson, from the PAT's Highland and Western Isles Federation.
She said: "In the short term, confronting this problem must be the closure of sites encouraging cyberbullying."
YouTube did point out that the website has joined the government's bullying task force and advised that a number of people use the site positively.
A spokesperson for the website said: "YouTube is a community site used by millions of people in very positive ways.
"It's also used by organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to reach people on a range of important issues. Sadly as with any form of communication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules."
The anti-bullying charity, Beatbullying, also spoke out against the PTA's call to shut down video-sharing sites, saying that they were not the cause of cyberbullying.
Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of the charity Beatbullying, said: "Calls for social networking sites like YouTube to be closed because of cyberbullying are as intelligent as calls for schools to be closed because of bullying.
"Cyberbullying is flourishing for two reasons. First, society is not adequately preventing bullying behaviour. Instead we celebrate it on television programmes."
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Published Date: 2007-08-01 13:17:05Subscribe to our RSS News feed:
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