YouTube and Google Fail

I doubt that anyone have missed the epic body slam that is currently circulating the video sites on internet, except maybe for the few of you that never venture outside of YouTube.

Casey does Bully Bodyslam

The case of Casey Heynes

While I have not been able to verify that it is the name of this individual, many are referring to him as such and you can find fan pages with this name as well as websites nominating this kid for a valor medal, here in the UK I would dare say that a Knighthood would be the least he should get.

Where is Google and YouTube failing?

By the time it took me to write those first few lines, a fan page dedicated to this young man standing up to bullies, has gained more than 1000 new likes on Facebook, yet on YouTube you can only find videos no older than 5-10 minutes with less than 500 views. YouTube keeps pulling the video off (Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ9AscQA6ug).

Why is YouTube doing this? No answer can be found, but apparently they are trying to stay out of it. I know that I am expressing my own personal opinion here (and mind you, at this moment it is more nuclear hot than the Fukushima Reactor in Japan currently in danger of Meltdown) – It is YouTube and Google’s social responsibility to make sure that this is spread and the debate gets some even more serious wind in the sails. More so it is also each and everyone’s own responsibility to keep spreading this wave.

As the sourced video above mentions, there is no easy “simple” or even diplomatic way of dealing with bullies, kids will tease, punch and be cruel to each other, it is part of the pack instinct or pecking order if you like, usually everything standing out gets hit, that is why (and I dare anyone still with fresh memory of “high school”, “college” or whatever the name of the earlier teenage years are referred to where you go to school, to say that I am wrong in this) it was so important to fit in, all those hours spent convincing parents you needed better/cooler/more hip clothes or gear, that fear that did grip even bullies of going to school on a “bad hair day” – as the chance of getting picked on and ridiculed increased because you were outside that invisible frame of “in or out”.

Hollywood’s interpretation of Bullying

I don’t really know why I come to think of the movie Mean Girls with Lindsay Lohan, but that is the sugar sweet Hollywood kind of way of bullying that we get fed through media. Maybe this is the reason YouTube keeps pulling the Casey Heynes Bully Bodyslam video offline, what Casey does and even what his antagonist does is NOT sugar sweet, it is not a few tears shed over a mean word, it is TWO face punches dealt to the victim, that then reacts and with some very smart move he lifts his attacker in the air, slams him down in the concrete (the attacker suffered a bruised knee, in my opinion got away quite cheap considering what could have happened).

Looking at it from the other side

There is one side that I believe will be severely overlooked during this viral spin and that is the fate of the bully. I am certainly not taking his side, he did get what he deserved, but he is not getting what he deserves now – an entire world of future, current and past bully victims that will forever have a face to hate, ridicule and yes, even bully. For many it may feel like justice is served and that he deserves what is coming to him, but this is where we have to step in and stop ourselves from continuing the bullying.

While it is an extremely sad fact that bullying never will go away, we can at least do our best at not adding more to it. Sure the kid deserves a “naughty step” (reference to Supernanny for those of you unfamiliar with a very good parenting program) equivalent to the amount of weeks, months or years he has been actively bullying this kid that now turned the tables on him.

Added footnote

Just before posting this article live I found the reason why YouTube and Google takes the videos off – Apparently there is a breach of their “hate speech” policy, but that still does not explain why they take the video offline, surely turning of the comments section is just as easy as hitting the delete button on a folder where the actual video is located. Still bad on YouTube and Google. I expected and am expecting a lot better!