- guardian.co.uk, Saturday October 21 2006 00.14 BST
- The Guardian, Saturday October 21 2006
Ministers are backing, in principle, plans to impose controls on the YouTube website to try to end the broadcasting of indiscriminate violence.
Jack Straw, the former home secretary and current leader of the Commons, said he supported such controls. "There is a very serious issue how such videos should better be controlled," he said.
Mr Straw raised the issue in the Commons on Thursday after Iain Wright, Labour MP for Hartlepool, said he was concerned about a posting from his constituency showing a man being kicked unconscious. The posting, entitled Milton Road Fight Club, shows a man being kicked in the street. Mr Wright said he was "worried that acts of violence and instances of happy-slapping recorded on mobile phones are being transferred to the web for wider consumption".
The issue is likely to be raised when MPs debate the violent crime reduction bill next week, but it is unlikely an amendment on such a complex area of broadcasting freedom could be put together in an acceptable form over the weekend.
There has been a stream of complaints that children are just a click away from being able to see unacceptable acts of violence on YouTube.
Teachers are also demanding action, claiming that children are using the site to bully other children as well as to humiliate teachers.
The YouTube website states: "YouTube doesn't allow videos with nudity, graphic violence or hate." It asks users to flag unsuitable videos as "inappropriate".
