I had a rough life from a young age and I was no stranger to the belt or a backhand..I was A fighter..Were I grew up and went to school you had to be...In 7th grade after transfering to a new school, I tried out for the basketball team. I made it, if anyone was wondering...But the girl who I replaced didn't like that too much and neither did her friends...I caught a nice ass whoopin..fractured face, broken nose, and a matching set of black eyes...No it wasn't video taped and yes I had to cut school for weeks trying to heal up, but when I got back I fought ever single one of them...all 5 of them, one on one. And after that moment I never backed down, never thought twice, and made sure with every ability I had in me to never let that happen to anyone else, if I knew them or not..And while I would never wish that kinnda pain on my worse enemy. I can honestly say that ass whoopin made me a better person, a stronger person and it taught me how to stand up for myself and others who couldn't stand up for themselves...I was 12 then, I'm 22 now, and I couldn't tell you how many fights I've been in..But I can say that I wasn't in my eyes a violent kid, I didn't like hurting people, it actually kinnda made my heart hurt..but it made my heart hurt more when I saw kids who were bullied or pushed around, and my anger outweighed my guilt every single time...I'm not advocating violence, but what I am saying is that sometimes what a bully needs is a little bullying...An Anti-Bully if you will

The internet is just the light for the behavior...I'm sure that these teens don't have close relationships with their parents. At least not healthy ones. Most people are not mature enough to raise children and pass on this immaturity to their in their daily lives.

Think about the time and effort these kids put into "stupid shit". If they only knew about the larger view of life and living maybe they would apply this zeal to be some sort of Myspace star ( how fucking short sited can you be )to saving money, school work, or planning a life that does not include explaining why you have been incarcerated for dumb shit to the Mcdonalds shift manager when that's the ONLY job that MAY consider you for employment after your "bid".

Clearly the conversations these kids are NOT having with their parents and the excessive amount of time teens are unsupervised is the real culprit in my opinion. I'm always blown away by what young people don't know...since when did young people become such addicts to commercialism...they barely know how to rebel in the classic sense. I don't care if they smoke crack while they watch "my supersweet sixteen"...just don't buy into either fantasy.

It would be nice if MTV would produce a show about being happy with your soft suburban life..instead of the constant "aspire to more selfishness shows"...that sort of programming is a bigger threat than lawlessness of the net to me.

"and now I'd like to entertain you all with some fancy pageant walking"

I can't say for sure, but let's not jump to the "blame the media" stereotype. I always respond to this charge with the suggestion that violence in the media doesn't create violent children and adolescents so much as it "encourages" the ones that already have the propensity for aggressive behavior. There's also the issue of the mental and emotional development of children and adolescents. Kids, for instance, have a difficult time separating reality from fantasy, hence the number of kids karate-chopping each other in the 90s because of Power Rangers or jumping off rooftops thinking they are Batman. So maybe there is a "disconnect" there of not only the inability to distinguish reality from fantasy but also the inability to understand "cause and effect." Kids are perhaps exposed to way too much violence before they reach the emotional maturity they need to handle it, lest it affect their behavior negatively. But I'm digressing, talking about children whereas you're talking about teenagers, but perhaps it starts in childhood. What creates violent teenagers, then? Maybe an exposure to a variety of negative environmental factors combined with an innate propensity towards violence? Tons of studies have been done on this and I'm not citing any here, but of course society is to blame. It always has been. But it's also always changing.

Violence has pretty much always been with us-- maybe it just has this sense of urgency now because stories like these are so widely circulated and overexposed. I'd say probably statistics, not reflecting back on the "good old days" where nobody ever hurt anybody would be a better way to examine the frequency of violence among teenagers over the decades.

I was not a naturally mean or aggressive kid. I was raised by parents who thoroughly explained to me tolerance and pacifism at a young age and also sent me to the best schools they could find. (No drugs, guns, gangs, etc.) We had no TV in the house for most of those years and internet wasn't around yet. Despite this "perfect" environment, I still got into fights.
My gender confusion issues left me as the geek outsider and kids responded by bullying me. I was big enough to fight back, so I only got into a couple of fights before they backed off. Other kids I knew were regularly beat up or otherwise abused for their entire school careers. Bullying happens in all schools, because kids aren't grown up yet and some have poor parenting or whatever. It terrifies me that these bullies are now finding role models that make them consider kidnap, aggravated assault, or shoot-outs as justifiable ways to let off steam.
Most of us could raise our kids to not be the attackers, but can any of us guarantee they won't be victims?
Unregulated internet access may be a culprit, or crazy x-box games, or a bunch of other things - it is probably different for each kid. So if the parents are falling down on the job it is virtually impossible to just legislate a solution. Or could we pass a law making parent-child quality time mandatory?

I hate fighting. Between wrestling with my brothers growing up into full blown punch fights over who sits where to...just because he looked at me wrong and was about to do something. I saved most of my fighting for my brother(s).

But getting into to the school era, hitting girls is not what I wanted to do....though some girls were very trying. I was a tomboy. The girlie girls...well...did not make any sense. A tomboy does not hit a girl. I knew that.

Boys, I understood. And knew how to handle them. Thankfully most boys didn't treat me like my brothers did.

I learned in the third grade with one of my boy friends that not all boys played like my brothers...the day after I threw him into the tree while playing...he cold cocked me with a hit to my temple and had me seeing stars on my knees.

And that was that.

I do stay away from fighting. And try to, but...when push comes to shove...one never knows...

But I am more the kind that will stand up and fight for her friends...then fight for herself.

I really don't get this internet stuff and the kids.

My 15 year old son got in hot hot water back in late August/ early september. He slept over his "cousin's" house and apparently went down into the fridge...got a beer. Took it upstairs and used his phone to take pictures and videos of him drinking it.

Now. I grew up. I understand the beer part. I know it's wrong, I've been there...he's not the first nor last teen to steal a beer, but....my discussion with him was based on what made him capture that ...KNOWING..how I was very adamant about looking through his phone and seeing who he's talking with and when and I'd like to know about what..but I know he needs privacy.

And asking him he was just saying it wasn't for anyone to see...not for his friends or anything...

Then I told him he was dumb for leaving evidence around - because it looks like he was WANTING to get caught.

And like always, his punishment was to take his phone, my link to him, away. And they blamed me for it, because it was the phone that made him do it...and I bought the phone..and it's me, the reason for him having a phone in the first place.

So since I saw him in the beginning of August I've only talked with him about 4 times. Which should be everyday.

I say, this was his way of acting up...rebelling...trying to have control. It was also not long after he asked and begged his father to let him live with me...to which his father replied "maybe next year if you prove to me your grades are good."

He's an A-B student.

He knows his father just didn't want to answer him. He basically said no without saying no.

rovermom :)

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when i was in high school every once in a while the working class kids would beat up the suburbanites, and once some girl tried to fight with me - hit me and then ran away when i stood there and laughed at her, but nothing too serious and personal video cameras were new and still out of the price range of most of our parents. my musical partner, however, grew up in inner city cleveland around the same time and had a quite different experience with violence growing up.

i don't get the 'lets beat the crap out of someone for a cool youtube video' (and provide the prosecutor with all the evidence they need), or why someone would think it was cool to watch a video of someone getting beat.

ok, i must admit now that i think about it, i punched scott mccleod in the nose on the playground in 3rd grade after he was being mean to my friend ethel (first time i was called a lesbian was for holding hands with her at recess) and threw some fellow into the wall in 7th grade in defense of my best friend. rare outbursts in a life of personal and political pacifism.

folk the wars!