Bully video's damage will outlast posting on social media, prof says

By the time a disturbing video is removed from a social media channel, the damage is already done, says a professor of social media marketing.

And the young, especially, have been slow to get the message.

Sam Fiorella, who teaches at Seneca College in Toronto, says there is nothing that goes online that doesn't stay online, and it's a big problem.

"That's a hard lesson for our kids to learn," he said.

Earlier this week, a video taken at a high school in Fredericton showed a teenage girl being bullied and attacked by another teenage girl. It was posted on Facebook, soon shared more than 1,000 times and viewed more than 120,000 times.

Comments flowed about the teens and their behaviour, and by noon Thursday there were more than 1,200, many of them noxious. 

Video shows attack

"Anybody can post just about anything," Fiorella said. "And then it's up to the users to call it out for abuse if it's deemed to go against the rules of the community, or the rules that the social network puts out there."

In the video taken at Leo Hayes High School, a girl in a red hoodie invites the other girl to hit her. The second girl, shorter than her tormenter, refuses and tries to stand her ground. 

Others watch, and some of them video the confrontation, which continues with the girl in the hoodie pushing the other girl, who yells in protest that she has no reason to fight. 

This is when the attack begins, with the girl in the red hoodie pushing and hitting the other girl. A voice can be heard telling other onlookers not to interfere. "Leave it, let it happen," the voice says. 

As the smaller girl tries to defend herself, the other girl kicks her, pushes her, hits her and pulls her hair. Again, the smaller girl tells her she doesn't want to fight.

Provokes laughter at Leo Hayes

Now the onlookers are laughing. The video runs almost two minutes before the attack stops.

Communications officer Jason Humphrey at the Anglophone West School District told CBC News the district was aware of the video and issued a statement.

"The matter you ask about was investigated and police have been notified," Humphrey said.

The district would not elaborate on its investigation into the video or discuss any discipline.

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Fiorella said kids don't understand the long-term consequences of posting something online.

"Many times they want to hurt the other person. A lot of times they don't even realize they're being recorded."

Fiorella said social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have the right to remove content that violates their rules, but they will never stop anyone from uploading it.

And even when social media platforms take things down in response to complaints, "often it's too late."

Slow reaction

A father of teenagers himself, Fiorella said the laws have not caught up with online bullying, leaving police and the legal system struggling with how to react.

"It's becoming an issue," he said. "There's an incredible rise in mental health concerns and the number of suicides that kids are experiencing these days, and a lot of it is contributed to online bullying and engagement."

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Fiorella said that for most young people, their lives are so wrapped in what others think that when they are bullied online, they can't see a way out of it, and some begin to self-harm.