British Teachers Want YouTube Axed

Delegates to the Professional Associations of Teachers conference have passed a motion demanding the closure of YouTube and similar sites which they claim encourage bullying.

British teachers have demanded that video-sharing sites like YouTube should be closed in an effort to stop the bullying of school pupils and staff. At the annualconference of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) delegates were told that such sites have been used to post videos showing pupils and teachers beinghumiliated or attacked.   A motion was passed demanding the closure of these sites. It was proposed by Kirsti Paterson, a delegate from the Highland and Western Isles Federation in Scotland. Sheclaimed one teacher had been the victim of a death threat which was posted online, showing an altered picture of the teacher, headless, with a caption reading “You are dead.”  According to statistics, one in four British pupils is the subject of cyber or text bullying.   A YouTube spokesperson responded by saying,   “YouTube is a community site used bymillions of people in very positive ways. It’s also used by organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to reach people on a range of important issues. Sadly as with any form ofcommunication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules.”   The proposal from the PAT hasn’t received widespread support. The charity Beatbullying doesn’t support it.