February 2, 2010 10:08 AM
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Girl Fights Go Online: CBS News Reports on Disturbing 8-Million YouTube Hit Phenomenon
NEW YORK (CBS) It may be sick, but people love girl fights, especially online.
CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson reported that despite a lack of statistics, experts say teenage girls are increasingly settling their disputes with violence and those fights are winding up online.
A video popped up on YouTube more than a week ago that showed two teenage girls in a violent fist fight - with two adults allegedly watching - and another minor doing the camera work. The fight took place in Baton Rouge, La.
Days later, in Lowell, Mass., local authorities discovered similar videos online.
Gerry Leone, the district attorney of Middlesex, Mass., told CBS News, "We found three different videos posted to YouTube, and it was female-on-female violence, where young females were fighting in a very violent way, and being exhorted to do so by friends who were both boys and girls."
Leone says local educators report about 80 percent of school fights are now girl against girl, a trend he says is fueled, in part, by the Internet.
Leone said, "They see friends getting a lot of attention from the posting of these violent attacks, and being young and impressionable kids, they figure that's one way of getting attention themselves."
In Baton Rouge, the two adults who allegedly watched the fight without stopping it have been charged with felony counts of cruelty to a juvenile. In Lowell, the middle school girl who was the alleged aggressor in one of the fights, has been arrested.
MORE AT CBS NEWS' THE EARLY SHOW
CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson reported that despite a lack of statistics, experts say teenage girls are increasingly settling their disputes with violence and those fights are winding up online.
A video popped up on YouTube more than a week ago that showed two teenage girls in a violent fist fight - with two adults allegedly watching - and another minor doing the camera work. The fight took place in Baton Rouge, La.
Days later, in Lowell, Mass., local authorities discovered similar videos online.
Gerry Leone, the district attorney of Middlesex, Mass., told CBS News, "We found three different videos posted to YouTube, and it was female-on-female violence, where young females were fighting in a very violent way, and being exhorted to do so by friends who were both boys and girls."
Leone says local educators report about 80 percent of school fights are now girl against girl, a trend he says is fueled, in part, by the Internet.
Leone said, "They see friends getting a lot of attention from the posting of these violent attacks, and being young and impressionable kids, they figure that's one way of getting attention themselves."
In Baton Rouge, the two adults who allegedly watched the fight without stopping it have been charged with felony counts of cruelty to a juvenile. In Lowell, the middle school girl who was the alleged aggressor in one of the fights, has been arrested.
MORE AT CBS NEWS' THE EARLY SHOW
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