To blame the media for this horror...

[PorkPieLove]

A group of secondary school children came across a dead body lying face up in a stream as they walked home from school. The middle aged man had died from head injuries and the kids saw him as they crossed a footbridge over the stream.

Did they call the police? No...they threw stones and took pictures and videos...which were then uploaded on to the net.

I think the media are partly to blame (and violent computer games) because kids are impervious to the shock of seeing something so dreadful. I've seen images of dead bodies on newspaper websites...and of people buried up to their waist getting stoned....isn't it time the media began to taake their role more responsibly?

Or is it just that the kids responded in a weird way due to shock?

I would have been terrified if I'd seen a dead body in a stream as a teenager. I would have run home screaming.

My DC (although) not yet teenagers would calmly get help.

I don't understand why these teenagers did this. Do you ahve a link?

I would be horrified! How terrible. I would also be horrified if, like lynette I saw pictures of stoning victims too.

I don't think that that would be the reaction of the average teenager TBH. Most teenagers still have some compassion and empathy and the element of shock within them too. Most would not behave so appallingly IMO. Sadly there is always going to be the significant majoity is all groups of people that have the ability to behave so disgracefully.

That sounds very similar to a story near me. I think teenagers sometimes can't really understand the reality of things.

i dont think its as cut and dried as blaming computer games, way too simplistic.

its societal. the problems go way deeper than what they watch on telly or play with im afraid. to blame the media is a massive cop out for everyone else.

Oh my god! That's awful Perhaps it was shock, or the fact that they were in a group? Still really shocking though.

www.onenewspage.co.uk/news/Front+Page/20100930/15559302/Schoolchildren-who-find-body-in-stream-then-throw.htm

Daily Mail I know.....

Could you do a link to this story, please porkpie?

No, I don't think it's games at all. I think it's the awful way some of these kids are brought up. Recently where I live there was a drunk woman lying down in the middle of the road with cars going past all the time. The kids nearby were laughing and recording it - presumably for youtube. I only realised that it was a person when I was right up close, and a man got out of his car and made her get up before we could do anything about it.

I think it may have been partly shock, although as a teenager I would have phoned the police (or an ambulance, or both).

Hi Vicar, how is the training going?

Skyrg...that's terrible!

VicarInATutu

I just don't want to think of the home lives of kids like that I suppose...

Why is the media to blame again? That's a bit of a non sequitur.

They've been badly brought up and don't know right from wrong. Is this due to what, the Daily Telegraph or something?

Also I am quite a gamer (although not keen on shooting games). All my compassion, empathy, manners and basic morals come from my mother. These kids have not been taught empathy, quite simply. A dead body is funny because it's someone else.

Also, they might get famous on youtube. Sigh

cant pin this on media.whatsoever.soaraway sun et al isnt exactly encouraging the kids to be mawkish and behave like that

"Some kids threw stones; some were crying"

"Footage is believed to have been posted on the internet"

Sorry, but I suspect this is a massively exaggerated account of the events, inevitably reported as fact by the Mail.

I think the stone-throwing must be the fault of the Daily Mail.

Which is, as mn knows, the root of all evil here on earth for ever and ever, amen.

so op you can read/see dead bodies and remain empathic but the kids are impervious?hmm how does that work

never read the dm,but it gets linked daily on mn so plenty here must do

no media is not monkey see,monkey do. isnt that simple

group behaviours,peer pressure, disassociation are all likely factors

This story is local to me, my sister attends the school next to where the body was found.

My sister was horrified at witnessing this, as were most of the children. Yes, a couple did take pictures, but they certainly were not in the majority.

I don't see how the media is to blame at all, more to do with upbringing surely?

I knew it, Wilts.

I don't think its the media, its the Internet! so many graphic images that would disturb me seem to be almost like water off a ducks back.
I think these kids may have been showing off for each other. It really saddens me to think they would show no distress or empathy.

The police have also asked any of the children that did take photos to hand them in. There has been an 'amnesty' type thing set up so the children do not have to be identified.

This is now a murder inquiry.

It's not the internet, they've been badly brought up and don't know right from wrong. It's child abuse to allow a kid to become so brutalised.

this inference that things seen on pc/tv screen directly affects behaviours is daft,isnt that simple.really isnt

It is ridiculous to blame the media! For what? Reporting on crimes/stories that children potentially read about/see on the internet?

What should happen? Should things like the tsunami/pakistan floods be censored so as not to shock young people? Should death, which is the ultimate price of conflict, not be shown as to not shock them?

The media in general takes it's responsibility very seriously and it is down to the parents and society as a whole to teach children right from wrong.