Violent videos circulating on social media have become more common in various parts of Finland. The normalization of the image of violence is, in the opinion of the police, worrisome.
On video you can see how the boy is thrown to the ground and punched in the head. In another video shot indoors, the same young person is reprimanded and asked to kneel down and apologize.
That’s what it says Morning paper in the news published last week. It tells about a video that has spread on social media, which shows a brutal beating at a school in Tampere.
It’s not a new phenomenon, but in the last five years, similar violent videos shot by young people have been seen more and more often on Snapchat, for example.
Commenting on the topic for Aamulehti the director of basic education in the city of Tampere Kristiina Järvelän according to the use of physical violence has reared its head in Tampere in recent years.
“Violence is not everyday in schools, but the idealization and acceptance of violence is visible. For a long time, there was significantly less violence in schools compared to my own school experiences in the 1980s,” Järvelä commented to Aamulehte.
In social videos of violence spread in the media have become more common in different parts of Finland.
“The Helsinki Police Department receives notifications about violent videos every week. The notification threshold is lowered by the fact that we ourselves are present with faces and job profiles on social media,” says the senior constable Susanna Mara from the Helsinki police.
Read more: A video of the beating of a young person in hospital started to spread on social media – Lapland’s police are concerned about the phenomenon
According to Mara, there are clearly two types of videos that come to the attention of the police: there are those in which someone is clearly in a weaker position and is being bullied, humiliated and, for example, beaten, even if he is already lying on the ground. Then there are organized fights where the public has gathered to cheer and film the situation.
“The victim depicted in the videos is not usually chosen at random, but very often the situation has been preceded by something that seems to justify the bullying. For example, previous threats, arguments, barking or bullying,” says Mara.
According to him, situations can get out of hand in disputes between young people, and for example, threats are answered more harshly than necessary, so as not to lose face in the eyes of others. The mindset of some young people is often accompanied by the inability to resolve disputes or disagreements in other ways.
“Boys shoot these videos more often than girls, but some girls have the same aptitude and skills as boys,” says Mara.
“The normalization of the depiction of violence is worrying and I feel that it also tends to reduce children’s ability to empathize,” says Mara.
Junior doctor Miila Halonsaari reminds that the dynamics of a youth group may work counterintuitively for an adult mind. Halonsaari works at the psychiatry outpatient clinic of Tampere University Hospital (Tays).
“Sometimes being part of a group of friends has strange rules. The fact that you get to keep your friends requires that you have to participate in some stupid things or at least sign as a bystander that what is being done is ok,” Halonsaari says.
According to Halonsaari, a group of friends is everything for a young person, and it requires tremendous courage to act differently from others. Sometimes the young person also fears that he will be bullied himself if he opposes others.
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With a small group, crime has increased and become more serious.
A young person may still need a lot of support and advice from an adult on what is acceptable, and why, for example, violent videos should not be spread on social media but should be reported to an adult.
“Being young is that you are still practicing your empathy skills,” says Halonsaari.
According to him, young people often act in the moment, looking for pleasure and experiences. It is partly explained by the stage of brain development, but also by the lack of life experience.
“When there is little experience, there is also little understanding of how the other person feels if you act this way or that way. Perhaps you haven’t experienced or had to see in your own life what kind of suffering it can be and what kind of suffering it can cause to others,” Halonsaari says.
And Mara that Halonsaari remind that the phenomenon of violent videos only affects a limited group of young people. According to Halonsaari, the majority of young people have a worldview that is absolutely against violence, where all kinds of bullying at school are seen as wrong. Only in small subgroups is the situation different.
“With a small group, crime has increased and become more serious,” says Mara.
According to Halonsaari, the background of violent behavior can sometimes also be psychiatric or neuropsychiatric disorders that affect the control of one’s own behavior. Of course, difficult home conditions can also affect the behavior of young people.
The background of bullying can be a desire for power and seeking one’s own place and attention by wrong means.
Schools strive for their part to eradicate bullying and investigate situations that come to the attention of the teachers, but both the police and the youth doctor direct their eyes to the parents as well.
“I would hope that parents would be aware of what kind of groups their young person is in, which channels they use on social media and what kind of content they produce there,” Halonsaari says.
Mara emphasizes that the younger the child is, the more parents should watch what their children do on social media.
“Younger people can freely consume social media and produce material there and watch it,” he says.
Mara reminds that parents’ tasks include going through the rules of the game together and supervising the use of the young person’s phone.
Sanctions of violence videos ending up with the police, of course, depends on what happens in the videos. Few young people perhaps understand that social media can also be a crime.
According to Mara, the crimes vary from mild assault to gross assault.
“If the distribution of the video causes damage, suffering or contempt to the subject of the video, this may also meet the characteristics of, for example, the crime of disseminating information that violates private life.”
Read more: Violence among teenagers is increasing, and often its purpose is to humiliate: The victim is forced to lick shoes, for example, and at the same time the situation is described on social media
Read more: A new phenomenon in teenage violence: Fights are videotaped for all to see – in “jumping videos” a group attacks the victim
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