Children post violent video online

An investigation has found violent videos involving children are posted on the internet without being screened.

Footage showing children as young as 11 and 12 punching and kicking other youngsters is regularly uploaded on to popular video-sharing websites and the trend has become so serious that police chiefs have called on internet companies to actively monitor their content and removing the offending films.

One of the websites found to have hosted such footage is You Tube, but they do not employ anyone to monitor what goes on the site, relying instead on users to "flag up" any inappropriate content.

The Google-owned site claims pre-screening content is a form of censorship which is not the role of a private company.

A spokesman said: "Sadly as with any form of communication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules.

"On YouTube these rules prohibit content like pornography or gratuitous violence. We don't want that sort of material on our site, and nor does our community."

The investigation found one film which showed a youth brandishing a handgun and smashing it against a police car.

Another video shows a laughing teenager jumping on a police car and shattering its windscreen.

Deputy Chief Constable Brian Moore, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said it was the responsibility of internet companies to search their sites for videos of violence and crime and to pass on details to police.

He said: "They are responsible for what is on their products, they are making a profit from this.

"We would question who is in a financially better position to police the likes of YouTube, those in the private sector, who are earning huge amounts of money, or police forces which are currently having to stretch budgets."

The YouTube spokesman said the website would be willing to help police.

He said: "If the police ask us for information then we will co-operate, so long as they follow the correct legal process that the Government introduced."

Another website which featured in the investigation, Liveleak, said it checks all videos before hosting them.

The Home Office states that technically it can be illegal to upload violent footage on to the internet but no one has been prosecuted so far.

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