Facebook slammed for baby-dunking video
PUBLISHED ONJune 06, 2015 11:15 PM
LONDON - Facebook has come under pressure from a leading British child protection charity over a controversial video which shows a crying baby repeatedly being dunked in a bucket of water, the BBC reported.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has criticised the social network over its decision not to remove the clip, which the society said shows a "terrified, sobbing baby" becoming distressed after being picked up and submerged in water several times.
The video - running to nearly two minutes in length - shows the baby being twisted by her arms and held upside down by her legs as she is picked up and partly submerged in the water dozens of times.
It is unclear when or where the video was made but it was reported to Facebook in Britain on Wednesday on the basis of "graphic violence" and "nudity".
A Facebook spokesman on Thursday insisted that the video had not breached its rules, saying it "depicts a form of baby yoga".
Yesterday, after coming under heavy criticism from the NSPCC and other child protection charities, Facebook said the video was being removed from pages which "support or encourage this behaviour".
In a statement, it said it was allowing the video to be used "in cases where people are raising awareness or condemning the practice" and would mark the video as disturbing.
The NSPCC maintained that the video depicted child abuse. It has called on the British government to ensure that social media companies proactively prevent users from posting inappropriate images or videos of children online so that people in the UK are "no longer exposed to this kind of dreadful and disturbing content".
This article was first published on June 6, 2015.
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WARNING: Video is graphic and disturbing.
YouTube video link.