Campaign launched to deter young people from recording and sharing violence

‘Quit Fighting For Likes’ aims to get young people to think about and discuss attitudes and behaviours around the filming and sharing of violent incidents.

Developed by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU), YouthLink Scotland and Medics Against Violence (MAV), the new campaign is part of an action plan agreed in the Scottish government’s Violence Prevention Framework, published in May last year.

It features a short awareness-raising animation, illustrating the digital world where this content can take place and showing an alternative route to switch off from it. A set of memes has also been produced covering a range of messages about why filming and sharing fights is damaging.

Speaking at the launch of the new campaign in Edinburgh, victims minister Siobhian Brown said: “While social media can play a positive role in young people’s lives, helping them engage with their friends and family, it can also be a platform where violent imagery is spread. This campaign will encourage young people to switch off and not share harmful content.

“Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework is making encouraging progress with a number of partner initiatives focused on prevention and early intervention so that communities across Scotland remain safe and more people live free from the threat of violence.”

Professor Christine Goodall, director and founder of Medics Against Violence, said: “The use of social media to incite violence is something we couldn’t have anticipated 15 years ago but now we see that regularly along with the sharing of distressing images and videos of violence filmed in places that should be safe, such as school playgrounds and community public spaces.

“As health professionals we recognise the impact that may have on encouraging young people to get involved in violence, risking injury, and the long-term psychological impact on those filmed when their images are shared in the online space, without their consent or knowledge.

“This campaign is important to us because we understand from speaking to young people how conflicted they are about social media and the peer pressure they face to join in with image sharing activities. We wanted to produce something that would reflect their views and would support them to take a stand against activity which is both damaging and pervasive.”