I think its horrifying that kids are looking at Berg's beheading.

[MoonRiver]

Yes, a free press is essential in a democracy, but we have to protect our kids from trauma to some extent. To watch a live beheading is beyond the pale, imo. It resembles the Dark Ages, where family entertainment was watching somebody being tortured and executed. Similarly, as recently as the last century, families in the deep South gathered to watch lynchings for fun and games. Are we now returning to this barbaric level? I fear that children will become so desensitized and brutalized by such images, they will start taking them for granted! The next step for the many vulnerable individuals out there is to emulate the acts. I don't have an alternative answer, I just know it disturbs me to have children exposed to such scenes.

[Bertha Venation]

1. My god, did someone put it on the air?! Please tell me "no!"

dear god....

[MoonRiver]

2. Apparently adolescents in a shool were watching it on the Internet.

I've heard the teacher(s) involved knew it was going on and did nothing to stop it. We've heard about one instance, but who knows how many more there are, if not in school then certainly at home. What to do?

[Bertha Venation]

6. What to do? Good question.

I suppose it's up to the 'rents. If my kid saw that in school, I would be in the teacher's face. I'd demand to know whether s/he knew what the kids were looking at. I must confess I probably wouldn't believe him/her if s/he said "No, I didn't know," but that's moot because my next question would be "WHY didn't you know?!"

I can't imagine watching it myself. For an adolescent (god, I hope they weren't younger than high school) to see it -- that can change someone's life at that age even more than it can change an adult's. :scared:

[MoonRiver]

10. These teachers should be charged with child abuse, imo.

Of course that won't happen, cause the bushistas WANT people, young and old, to see the video. They think it's going to pump up support for their bogus war. I disagree, but the damage will be done to our kids anyway. :cry:

[WastedPotential]

3. I hope the savages who did this hideous act are brought to justice

Agreed. It is a truly sickening act.

[madrchsod]

8. it`s only bush`s law

i think the bush administration is the "law" in Iraq at the present time.

[madrchsod]

4. no disrespect but haven`t seen

what passes for video games and movies? video games you are in control of murdering people in all kinds of ways. splatter films on video and the big screens across America?? there is more blood and gore and realism in games and splatter films that can be accessed by children than the berg video. most kids who watch and play this "entertainment" would think the berg video is really lame.isn`t America grand-where kids can grow up and think reality is just a bad video?

[MoonRiver]

9. I don't like those either. But this was the real thing.

Adolescents know the difference.

I CANNOT believe you just said "most kids who watch and play this "entertainment" would think the berg video is really lame." That is emphatically UNTRUE. There was an enormous amount of trauma among children following the WTC attack. Many children suffered serious and long term psychological damage by watching those images. This is the same phenomenon, only now kids are seeing murder up close and personal.

[mopaul]

5. I heard a 20 yr. old say he wanted to see it cause 'it'd be cool'

i reminded him that it isn't funny, and that bushco is planning on drafting his ass.

[bacchant]

7. I find out a teacher let my kid watch that video

I'll make sure the teacher's head is the next to roll.

[livinginphotographs]

11. It depends on the context and the age.

(One point to note: downloading a video like that at my high school would've gotten you suspended, regardless of context or age).

If the "child" is late teens, and is watching it for the same reason I watched it, then I see nothing wrong with it. If they're watching it because "it's cool," that kid's been screwed up already and watching this video isn't going to make him or her any worse.

It's a parent's job to prepare their children for the real world, and sometimes, grisly things happen in the real world. As my mother said, "I can't wrap you in plastic forever," but she did what she could to prepare me to make the right decisions and the right conclusions from the things I would run across.

Showing this to a young child, though, is nothing short of child abuse, though. I guess it's in the eye of the beholder, though, of how young is too young.

[newyawker99]

12. Hi livinginphotographs!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: