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Legislation should be introduced to stop videos promoting gang violence being made available online, the Commons has heard.
Heidi Alexander (Lab, Lewisham East) told MPs on Tuesday that the videos were easily available online and contained "frightening" content.
Introducing a bill under the ten minute rule motion, Alexander proposed a new law which would give courts the power to order internet service providers (ISPs) to take down videos promoting violence.
She told MPs: "I am appalled by the proliferation of online videos which glorify gangs and serious youth violence. Police, by the courts and ISPs, need to be given explicit powers to get these videos taken down or access to them blocked.
"They lead to increased numbers of young people in our cities who feel they need to carry a knife for protection and they terrify any ordinary human being who watches them."
The Lewisham East MP described a video she had been passed by a constituent of his son being robbed in broad daylight which was hosted on video-sharing site YouTube.
She said the video featured youths waving knives around "as if they were cigarettes" and boasting about violence in a way that was "menacing, sickening and frightening".
Alexander added that there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of similar videos freely available on the internet.
She said that the government failure to include detailed reference to the internet in its report into ending gang and serious youth violence was "remarkable, short-sighted and out of touch".
Alexander told MPs: "We know the internet is increasingly central to the lives of people, young people in particular. Some research has suggested teenagers spend as much as 31 hours per week online.
"It seems to me that the popularity and accessibility of the internet means it is inevitably one of the ways through which young people get caught up the madness of youth violence.
"These videos frighten me and they frighten young people too.
"Every one of us here today knows that carrying a knife is wrong. Some of us will also know if a young person carries a knife it is probably as likely to end up injuring them as anyone else. We also know that many young people carry knives out of fear - they may not start out to stab someone but as we all know, too often that becomes the tragic reality.
"For many, the everyday fear of gangs and what they can do is far greater than the fear of getting caught and going to prison. Don't we owe it to the young people who are viewing this stuff online to make them feel safer?"
Alexander's Internet Regulation (Material Inciting Gang Violence) Bill will gain a second reading on March 16 2011, but stands little chance of becoming law without government support.
Article Comments
And how on earth are we going to police this? We are talking about hundreds of thousands of videos here.
Asking ISPs to block them is like trying to block porn sites. It never works and loads of genuinely useful stuff is blocked.
Also, as soon as ISPs are forced to filter content theres a risk of other things being blocked... Facebook is a cause of bullying isn't it? Why don't we block that out like our friends in China?
The Internet should not and cannot be policed. Even Lybians were getting videos published when apparently the whole country was firewalled off!
Please think things through before wasting our tax money debating this in parliament.
Hugh Halford-Thompson
9th Nov 2011 at 9:04 pm
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