Girlfights a disturbing Internet trend
Feb-03-2010

Two teenage girls went at it. Two adults allegedly watched and another minor videotaped the whole thing in Louisiana. The fight popped up on YouTube more than a week ago. Days later, in Lowell, Mass., local authorities discovered similar videos online and said local educators report about 80 percent of school fights are now girl against girl.

Some experts believe the trend is partly fueled by the Internet.

CBS 2 HD met with members of the cyber safety group "Teenangels" at The Ursuline School in New Rochelle.

"People want attention from it. They want to be on the Internet. They want to be famous and they're willing to go to any cost to do that," said Teenangel Angelina.

We plugged in "girl fight" on YouTube and 267,000 videos popped up. Under them you'll find pages of comments from viewers all over the world.

"That it's funny, laugh out loud, ha ha ha, wow, that guy's just laughing," Angelina read.

"It's really important that parents become informed even parents of younger children need to know this because it's becoming such a widespread phenomenon that parents really need to protect their children, learn about it how can they prevent it," said Teenangel Maggie.

Dr. Jennifer Harstein said kids are exposed to so many violent images these days, parents need to enforce a reality check.

"Know what your kids are looking at, and really open the dialogue to discuss what it is, why it is, how they feel about it. Do they think it's okay? Ask a lot of questions, really probing instead of being punitive and saying 'You better not do this ever.'"

Dr. Harstein said go from there and encourage your kids to report inappropriate videos, letting them know it can be done anonymously.

Cyber experts said it's one of the most effective ways to slow down this dangerous trend.

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