I believe in human rights as do my people. However a person's human rights end where the other person's nose begin.

Bullying other people is a sign of mental problems, by the way. Just ask any psychiatrist or psychologists.

S. Hood, Grandiview,

Back to bullying, but also allowing the bullies to get away with it. Here in Britain, we are expected to punish the person who reacts to the teasing/ bullying/ name calling/ whatever. Not the perpetrator who laughs in the corner because he/she has won anyway! Looking into the "why" of the incident takes time - a precious resourse teachers sadly lack. People who do try to get to the bottom of the incident are then confronted by angry parents yammering on about the violation of their / their child's human rights! It is no one's human right to hurt another person - physically or mentally. A joke is not a joke unless enjoyed by both sides of the conversation. But the excuse is always "can't you take a joke?" or "I always tell the truth" ( not notice, as they see it) and come out with unpleasantness. People do not listen to compliments because they are always waiting for the "but..." All this impedes the desire to learn which is innate. We are too quick to punish without real deep thought.

Carlyle and Len Braden, Croydon, U

I find it almost unbelievable that the first reaction of supposedly intelligent people like the PAT is to want to ban the video sites. Surely they should realise that the problem is the behaviour of the wrongdoers not the electronic wall where they choose to brag about it. Secondly they should realise that any wrongdoer placing a video of their misdeeds on a public forum is almost begging to be caught. I bet the police would be delighted if all criminals sent them a video of their crimes! Why not use these unpleasant videos to catch the perpetrators and deal with the problem instead of mindlessly trying to sweep the problem out of sight?

Chris Woods, Crewe,

The number one 'site' for bullying is the school yard - I suppose then we should ban schools.

Jan, Hull, E Yorks

Why not ban snailmail, telephones including mobiles and even carving on stone tablets while we're at it.
All have been used to make threats.

tom Halpin, London,

Ban YouTube? There are hundreds of these video sites, YouTube is simply the one that the media like to talk about at the moment. Banning this site and others obvious ones would not only be futile (a new one would take its place within days) but also set a dangerous precedent for banning a means of free speech that the majority of people use in a harmless way.

We are not a repressive theocracy or a totalitarian state. Restricting everyone to punish a few is a foolish path.

Parents need to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their children; it is as simple as that. The currently unelectable David Cameron may just be headline grabbing once more, but his idea of a contract of responsibility between parents and school does make sense. It is about time common sense replaced politically correct.

Luke, London, England

There IS no end to bullying
the internet is just one channel for people to belittle others
most of the times its hard to tell the faces of the people being bullied....
there are loads of sadists. Anyone can easily harass people by painting their number on walls and what not. You really can't ban sites that are so advantageous.
The only way out is prevention-don't fight so people won't film you, don't allow people to photograph you or put your photos on the web and don't give out too much information on social networking sites.
Cure isn't always the best solution is it?

jks, Quetta, Pakistan

Ban YouTube?! Are these people really that uneducated?

Zoe , lancaster, lancashire

Banning YouTube for featuring these videos is one of the most ridiculous ideas i have ever heard. Would they then extend it to other sites which could host content - why not just close the entire internet down? I agree though they should limit access to these sites on school computers (of course the majority of children have computers at home nowadays anyway)

Bullying existed before these sites and they should continue to look at the cause of the problem rather than embarrassing themselves with these comments.

Steve, London, UK

Banning sites such as YouTube would be like cracking a nut with sledgehammer. But to be honest, it is a very grave problem that we have.

You just have to search with "right" tags and then you will know the gravity of the problem. There are ample of videos with racist bullying and student fights (like dog fights).

Lot of it is from the great United States of America but there are videos from so-called nice areas such as Pinner.

This has to be stopped, once and for all.

L Fox, Pinner, Middlesex

Oh my....
Teachers SHOULD know better!
(Why Kill the messenger ?)....
We have become a nation of book burners!

Bill, Wales,

Looks like we'll need to turn the internets off.

Gary Wilmot, Interster, UK

What's the point of removing YouTube? Tackle the parenting and psychological issues at heart not the symptoms. There will always be something to replace such websites in an evolving democracy with technological advances!!

Michael, Hampshire ,

Maybe the "bullying" is really just an "expressive outlet." Teachers can be tyrannical nutjobs and, of course, students want to humiliate them. And many of them deserve it.

Jack Smith, Bristol, London

Rather than dealing with the ills of society, there seems to be a drive towards censoring a medium which only highlights them. Bullying and abuse within schools is nothing new, it just happens that as our culture (and children) becomes more technologically capable it has reahced new formats.

Lets forget dealing with how this occurs and look more towards why it occurs. Banning websites such as Youtube will in no way deal with this scoial blight.

Frankly I am shocked that teachers - supposed knowledge providers to the young generations - would even voice this opinion.

Brett, Windsor, UK

Treating videos of violence on the same basis as the RateMyTeachers site is completely unjustified. Most comments on RateMyTeachers site strike me as quite sensible and moderate. Many are very helpful. A few are not, but so what? Not everything that teachers do or say is either helpful or pleasant either. Indeed, bullying by teachers is one of the great unacknowledged problems in schools. By the power of example, it can lead children to think bullying is okay. I'm afraid many teachers are full of a sublime arrogance, apparently thinking that it's okay for them to make hurtful comments, to sit in judgement and assess kids, but the idea that they themselves might be assessed by their "clients" raises their blood pressure dangerously. Please get real. No-one can claim sacred cow status, and censorship is not the answer to anything. It's unsurprising that this comment comes from PAT, long known as the home of antediluvian, authoritarian attitudes. Oh yes, and who am I? I'm a teacher

John Davies, Newport, Wales.

Ban Youtube and MSN!??? Possibly two of the most trafficked sites on the internet? I presume they mean MSN Messenger.

What kind of learned teachers make demands like that? That simply will NEVER happen and it is an idiotic attempt at preventing bullying.

I cannot beleive educated people think (a) They could get the sites banned and (b) that banning these sites would realistically reduce bullying at all.

Identical sites would pop up as the next tool for a bully in a heartbeat.

Sharpz111, Lancs, UK

Teachers are not and never will be allowed to strike a student-I agree with that. I am a public school teacher of 32 years. Teachers are not allowed to be honest -in a profesional way when students behavior/attitudes are impeding the learning process. Students, however, are allowed to make hurtful, disrespectful and threatening comments to fellow students and teachers. If the latter behavior is cited by a teacher, generally, a conference with the guidance counselor and parents is required to figure out a way to help the child that is displaying these poor behaviors. Parents oftentimes agree with their children and state that the teacher is not making their learning process interesting enough. Parents are becoming increasingly "the friend" of their children and enjoy this role and the pressure and stress of real parenting is greatly diminished. Most parents feel that ratemyteacher.com is valid and if teachers don't like it, they should talk with the student and try to "rectify" things!!

Sandy, Taunton, MA

There's no point in banning these sites as others will just open to replace them. The providers need to be forced to monitor what is posted and penalties imposed for those that fail to do so.

Martin, Reading, UK

If we close these wonderful sites we have succumbed to the hijackers of sites, I my self involved in anthropology and dancing and find you tube, google video a tremendous help, I think we should educate student find away to trace those bullies and take them to court as they did with the nasa hackers, if there is a loophole in our law let us deal with it and find solutions, not closing new technology sites and play victims in the hand of winning hijackers and bullies.

ramy, london, uk

Why not just ban pencils and pens from schools so students can't write bullying noted and pass them round?

This is another example of people not understanding the technology but still trying to talk with some kind of authority about it.

Andrew McAdam, Huntingdon, UK

Turn the tables on the bullies and put their pictures on the anti-bullying sites. by all means exclude them from school. But then you would get people saying 'what about their human rights' - well what about them! If your not prepared to respect others especially people working in the public and other children you should get what you deserve (face up to the consequences of your actions-you cowards), including their parents Anyone that has left school and still has a grudge with a teacher needs to grow up and join the real world Finally, I agree with the person talking about national service. It has got to that point where we seriously need to re-consider the option. We are struggling to man ops here and abroad, soldiers are moving from one tour to the next. Its high time more people helped out. Before or after your further education. We all enjoy those freedoms its time we all fought for them again

May this could give those bullies a taste of what its like on the receiving end!

Kal, Letchworth, Herts

Good God, this is appalling! Not the bullying, although obviously that's not cool. But the Nanny State!

I agree with Mr. Lorriman - you can't ban EVERYTHING just because it might have unpleasant side-effects. Instead, you just have to do what you can to minimize those side-effects.

Edward Avern, Berkhamsted, England

People often ignore that Tech has helped speed up the way that these threats of bullying come today. Today instead of waiting X days for something, you get your message in X seconds. Baning the technology that allows this is not the best answer when, as many have already pointed out, it is the responsibility of the parents to teach those morals. How do children develop their wold views? By the way their parents express theirs, monkey see monkey do. You aren't born a bully you are socialized into one. don't blame the technology or the technology platform for something that some irresponsible parent doesn't want to do. Drinking beer is more fun then raising your child it seems. Technology is easy to become a whipping boy because it's not a human being and also acts as a central point, remove the central point and somehow the underlying problem disappears. if that were the case why is there still bullying today as there was back when the current tech didn't exist?

Pat, Montreal, Canada

The problem is one of discipline - not modern technology

Bernard Quatermass, Paisley, uk

first it was credit card authentication to get my online filth, now they want to take away my supply of 80's cartoons in the form of youtube.

I'm sick to the back teeth of being expected to babysit other peoples nasty offspring by proxy like this!

Bring back the birch......then post the vids on youtube as a deterrant!

Ben, Manchester,

Its simple, 99% of the people who use utube dont do anything wrong, and even if they did manage to block these sites, others would come and in the end the bullies would find different ways to do this.

This lies with the bullies and the parents, discipline etc is the answer, give some power back to the schools to deal with people who do this and stop shying away from the fact that youth problems are going to have to be dealt with soon in this country.

Why not being in conscription for children who do not behave, a month in the army instead of a couple of weeks with a youth (no idea) support worker would do the trick

Jamie, rochdale, lancs

We should really ban oxygen as well: bullies use that also. That would take care of the problem, right and proper.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

I don't actually see a quote from any teachers saying they want to shut down Myspace or YouTube. They just say they want "...the closure of sites encouraging cyber-bullying."

I think the author might of used a little dramatic license here.

Anyway, it's hardly an unreasonable request; although in practice it's going to be impossible to carry-out.

A much better idea would be so simply use the 'Ignore user' command. Most forms of electronic communication have those and I would imagine that IM and txt etc would account for the majority of cyber-bullying

Oliver, Liverpool, UK

Yes, let's also ban e-mail, mobile phones and letter writing and hey, while we're at it let's just not let kids talk to each other at all. It's the only way to be sure!

Jessica, Northants,

I'm surprised "teachers" (how many of them? All? Some little self-publicising group? Just the ones who have nothing better to do just now?) are not demanding the removal of any wall people might write slogans on. After we have closed the internet down completely and got rid of mobile phones, will they be happy? Whoever this group are, they sound like a bunch of fundamentalists.

C Blackmore, Melksham, England

It's quiet likely that those "useless teachers" taught you to read this article, Rich. :) Teachers are certainly not given anywhere near the respect that the profession deserves. However, if there is libellous (or criminal) behaviour then it should be handled in the same way as any other criminal act, by the police.

Roger, London,

Right... how very Intelligent of you.

Those useless teachers have taught you well enough to actually make it here, and you can even string together a sentence.
You should show more respect to the people who have tried to help you, but who obviously wasted their time on you.

If kids are rude at school, then the parents should be held responsible, its their job to teach their own children how to behave. So instead of trying to ban websites, go straight for the source and ban the parents of the kids from ever having children in the first place.

not a teacher, uk,

give teachers the ability to clip rowdy kids around the hear. Kids today are plain disrepectful. Rich, Birmingham, UK... Personally your comment is unfounded. you clearly didnt read the article correctly. I imagine you have at some point used youtube as cyber bullying. A the tech age progresses, bullying it becoming worse. When i was at school bullies where people, now they are threats that come via email or sms. they are annoymous, they dont happen at school. Edward, Picture your child (now or in the future) on youtube, being beaten by a group of kids, now picture how you woulod feel when you know the world is watching. Put yourself in the vidtims position, your all selfish and clearly ignorant to the long terme effects of what bullying and the new form of bullying in this electronic age. I applaud any steps taken to reduce technological bullying of any kind.

nick, Lincoln, Linconshire

I would agree however, why ban something that is not on the whole causing a problem. I think firstly the teachers should sort out the bullying that goes on in most schools. If they sort that problem out then maybe they could have an argument to address any out of school issues.

Lee, Cornwall, UK

I am a teacher myself, and I have several children that I deal with on a daily basis outside of school (related to me, althought not mine biologically). Now, while I understand that this is an issue, why are these children's parents not becoming involved? I use YouTube regularly and enjoy it. Yes there are problems. There are things on there that I do not want to see at all, but there are better ways of going about this than by shutting them down. In the process, you would have to shut down MySpace, LiveJournal, Vox, Facebook (they went through this before and they are possibly the least likely to be useful in such an act in my opinion). There are many social sites and blog sites out there that would all have to be shut down. To what end?
THe responsibility here lies with the parents, and if they are not willing to stand up and deal with thier children, they should be held accountable. Not the website managers. The parents.

Amy, Olive Branch, MS, United States/Mississippi

Hahahaha!!! When will people learn the meaning of free speech and the principle of the internet? This is a joke! Who do these people think they are that they can determine what websites are allowed on the net?!

Edward, New York City,

Useless teachers, always thinking that they can just ban anything they don't like or which doesn't conform to their superficial ideals.

Rich, Birmingham, UK