Schoolgirl combat movies proof mobiles should be banned from lecture rooms

The graphic content and jerky camera work are reminiscent of chaotic footage beamed back from a war zone.

In the brief yet numerous clips, however, there is nothing remotely heroic about these close quarters exchanges where fighting is dominated by flashes of terrifying brutality.

In one, a hapless victim cowers as furious blows rain down on their head amid the sickening noise of contact between fist and skull; in another, the target screams as they are slapped and kicked and their hair is violently pulled.

It is hard not to flinch when confronted with such uncompromisingly violent content. 

But if these shocking videos depict a war, then it is being fought out in the streets and parks near our schools and homes.

And it is fuelling a disturbing trend on social media where school bullies are filmed beating up their victims before the results are posted online minutes later like virtual trophies.

Of particular concern, new research suggests, this toxic culture of cyberbullying has infected not just boys but growing numbers of schoolgirls as well.

The study suggests it is now commonplace for young girls to try to boost their status and self-esteem at the expense of humiliating their victims by sharing footage of their successful fights via online platforms.

Furthermore, the report found that the sharing of such harmful videos of children being assaulted is now widespread and normalised.

The clips appear in a near constant churn on platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok on pages with names including ‘Glasgow school fights’ and ‘fights&scraps’ with these sites playing a ‘central role’ in facilitating attacks, according to work done by YouthLink Scotland’s No Knives, Better Lives project into violence between girls in Scotland.

Some fights happen spontaneously on the way to or from school, while others are arranged in advance on dedicated accounts open only to participants – challenges laid down to settle a grudge or some perceived slight.

The videos are often removed as soon as they go up, before reappearing on another site.

For the victim, still reeling from the kicks and punches, there is the fresh pain of knowing all your classmates – and children from other schools – can watch and re-watch your humiliation.

Such devastating attacks can do more than bruise egos – they can shatter brittle self-confidence and leave the most vulnerable too terrified to ever return to school.

Parents will doubtless be left horrified not just at the brutishness of the beatings inflicted on their daughters but at the heartlessness of whoever posted the footage online.

But it is not only fights against their schoolfriends or other youngsters they are witness to, with far more disturbing content finding its way onto their phone screens.

‘The young women were exposed to near constant videos of violence on social media, as well as other types of violence such as serious animal cruelty,’ the report’s authors wrote.

‘The focus groups highlighted the normality of fights being filmed and then being widely, and quickly, distributed either through sharing within school and communities or on public platforms.

‘For the young women, violent content was easy to find via search functions or through accounts dedicated to local school violence.

‘The young women knew which social media platforms were more likely to take down violent content, and which were more likely to host violent content.’

What the researchers found has left them in no doubt that previous suggestions that only a tiny minority of young girls are involved in violent behaviour may be wide of the mark.

‘What we heard from the young women in our focus groups suggested to us that it was a bigger problem than was reflected in those national statistics,’ said Emily Beever, senior development officer with YouthLink Scotland.

‘There was a communality of experience of violence which leads us to suspect some aspects of violence are more widespread.

‘Exposure to violence on social media, for example, isn’t covered by that national research.

‘I think that is much more common than perhaps people would appreciate.’

The troubling snapshot contained in the report, entitled The Lassies are no Feart, has reignited the debate over whether the use of smartphones – near ubiquitous among teenagers – should be restricted or even banned outright on school campuses.

It also raises the unpalatable prospect that international social media giants have become too powerful to be policed by the UK’s online safety watchdogs.

What is more, if a young girl can be filmed being beaten black and blue by her peers who then upload the results as a piece of entertainment, then what does that say about the future of society?

Another unsettling aspect is Ms Beever’s suspicion that teenagers were being deliberately targeted and encouraged to share footage of fights.

‘The young people we spoke to talked often about anonymous accounts who are collating school violence within a locality,’ she said.

‘These anonymous accounts are farming videos. They privately message girls and ask them, “Do you have videos of fights?”, or gossip, or anything that could be used and posted through the anonymous accounts.’

Ms Beever said it was unclear who was responsible, and added: ‘Is it another young person or a really manipulative adult who is trying to make money out of children fighting?

‘Some accounts will post teasers of fights, if they felt they were doing it on a platform where they felt a fight would be taken down.’

‘The teaser would prompt the viewer to message them individually to receive the video in full. It’s almost like gamifying it, in a way.’

The net effect, the research suggested, was that young girls were becoming desensitised to violent footage.

‘The young women told us about really serious and graphic violence they had seen, including animal cruelty,’ said Ms Beever.

‘One of the groups told me about seeing a live cat being put into a blender.’

‘These are young people who were all under 16 who have open access to this type of content.’

In order to compete, she added, the girls they spoke to felt ‘a push to be even more outrageous and have something particularly horrible that would grab people’s attention’.

That conclusion bears out separate research by the Scottish Government, published in November, which found incidents of violence, aggression and disruptive behaviour in schools have risen significantly over the past few years.

In 2022, concern was raised in the Scottish parliament after footage of Abbie Jarvis, a 12-year-old autistic schoolgirl, being beaten in Glasgow went viral.

She was lured to a skatepark before she was attacked and the assault was filmed. While Abbie was left in hospital with serious injuries, the footage was posted online.

Abbie and her mother, Angela, have waived their right to anonymity to campaign on the issue.

Mrs Jarvis, 45, said it was clear the problem was worse than officially recorded and that tech companies were failing to do enough to protect children like her daughter, who has been unable to return to mainstream education.

‘People are just not reporting it,’ she said. ‘They feel as though they should be dealing with it themselves.’

‘And a lot of people don’t trust policing and don’t think they will help. There needs to be more pressure on social media platforms to protect children from harm.’

She added: ‘If you go onto some of these sites there are hundreds of videos with girls attacking girls but there are boys attacking girls on there too.’

‘It is a huge trend among teenagers to post these violent clips for some kind of notoriety. It makes me very angry, but at the same time, I feel those doing it are also kids. This is our next generation – what is it going to look like?’

Mrs Jarvis has backed media regulator Ofcom’s recently announced plans for a crackdown on social media giants sharing harmful content.

The Children’s Safety Code of Practice, expected to be finalised in summer 2025, states that sites should minimise children’s exposure to violent, hateful and abusive material, including online bullying.

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom chief executive, said: ‘We want children to enjoy life online, but for too long their experiences have been blighted by seriously harmful content which they can’t avoid or control.’

‘Many parents share feelings of frustration and worry about how to keep their children safe. That must change.’

It must, but so must the behaviour of children. Earlier this year, one mother, Vicky Donald, urged teenagers not to participate in the trend after her daughter Kaylynn, 13, was filmed being attacked on a school bus in Fife.

‘Don’t just stand there like everybody else and record,’ she said. ‘Be the difference.’

The study, which was carried out between May and December 2023, included four focus groups with 16 young women – two groups in a school setting and two in a youth work setting.

It was only through taking part that the girls started to recognise the effect of graphic and violent content on their behaviour.

The girls pointed to the rise of large Snapchat groups which were used to foment disputes and organise physical fights.

‘Once added to one of these large group chats on Snapchat, young people spoke about the inevitability and inescapability of in-person violence,’ the report found.

‘The immediacy and real-time nature of Snapchat messaging appeared to contribute to the swift organisation of these conflicts, posing challenges for intervention and prevention.’

‘Fights were purposely organised to take place in spaces where there were no cameras or adults present.’

While the report stresses that such behaviour still only involves a minority of young girls, albeit a growing one, it paints a profoundly depressing picture – and one immediately recognisable to teachers.

Patricia Goodbrand, head teacher of Speyside High School, Moray, told The Times she had seen more girls fighting since lockdown.

‘It’s because they get more involved on social media and then it spills into school the following day,’ she said.

‘If there was a move to completely ban smartphones it would be something I think we would consider.’

Teaching unions said the ‘misuse of mobile phones in schools is a significant issue’ and they should be ‘supported in implementing robust policies to tackle inappropriate use of phones and other digital devices, to protect all within the school’.

A spokesman for the Educational Institute for Scotland union said: ‘It is inappropriate for pupils or teachers to be filmed without their consent on school grounds, and wholly unacceptable for any such videos to be posted on social media sites.

‘This type of cyberbullying is a matter of serious concern for schools and can have a profoundly damaging impact on the victims, both pupils and staff, who are subjected to it.’

The police, too, face a major headache given the sheer volume of clips and the speed with which they appear and disappear. Instead, they have fallen back on beat bobbies to work with schools and pupils to change the culture.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘We recognise the value in having strong relationships within schools, and working closely with partners we can positively influence behaviours to create safer environments and reduce crime.’

Unsurprisingly, the desire to protect our children transcends party politics. Scottish Tory deputy education spokesman Roz McCall called the report’s findings ‘deeply alarming’.

She said: ‘No pupil should be worried about being a victim of violence in Scotland’s schools and it is clear that smartphone activity is playing an increasing role in those incidents.’

The Scottish Government has suggested that a decision on banning smartphones from schools would be taken in the near future.

A spokesman said schools should be ‘safe environments for all’ but regulating social media was a matter reserved for Westminster.

He added: ‘Notwithstanding, the Scottish Government has been very clear that providers also have a responsibility to enforce their own policies on harmful online content.

‘Additionally, the Scottish Government will bring forward refreshed guidance on the appropriate use of mobile phone technology in schools.

‘As a starting point for this guidance, head teachers should be empowered to take any action they deem necessary, including the restriction of their use.’

And yet not everyone is a fan, including Angela Jarvis. ‘Often the most vulnerable children rely on their mobile phones at school, in order to phone home for reassurance,’ she said.

‘It is not always helpful for them to be left without the means to contact their family.’

She added: ‘Taking away social media isn’t going to solve the problem entirely.’

‘You have to ask yourself why these online platforms aren’t doing more to cut down on violent content?’

‘Because probably one of their biggest followings will be teens. So tackling this culture of fame through violence would be a start.’

With teenage girls enthusiastically viewing and producing graphic content, whoever takes that on will have a major fight on their hands.

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