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Australian State Blocks YouTube Access in Schools

The Australian state Victoria blocked the access to the video sharing website YouTube, in state schools, in order to combat online bullies. The action was brought on by a public outcry due to a school incident. A group of students videoed themselves sexually abusing a girl and posted the video on the website. The horrific video portrays a group of 12 teenagers surrounding a mildly mentally ill 17-year-old girl, scaring her into doing different sexual acts, urinating on her and burning her hair.

Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan said the website will be blocked in all 1,600 state schools. "The government has never tolerated bullying in schools, and this zero tolerance approach extends to the online world," She said. "All students have the right to learn in a safe and supportive learning environment ? this includes making students` experience of the virtual world of learning as safe and productive as possible," she added.

The Australian newspaper reported, Thursday, that a recent poll of 650 school students conducted by the University of Melbourne`s education faculty found that 32% of those aged 12 to 17 reported being victims of cyberbullying. Girls were two and a half times more likely to be victims than boys, the newspaper said. Recently, YouTube has been blocked by internet service providers in Brazil for a while. A video uploaded by users portraying an intimate moment of a famous Brazilian model was taken down by the site, but the site was unable to stop the video from being uploaded again to the website. A Brazilian court ordered the website be blocked until the problem is solved.