i can't believe TEN year olds were doing that, i would have known not to hang myself when i was 10. even younger than that actually!

OMGz! Let's sue Iraq for setting a bad example for children. I guess Saddam should have died since he teaches kids to do bad things!

No but seriously... Why were kids watching an execution video in the first place and the news channels didn't even need to show it. When you spread sickness like this around then stuff like this is bound to happen.

I was hoping that was video of the kids doing the reenactment! Damn it creepyer you had me so excited!

One of my housemates did the exact same thing down at the county jail a few years ago. There was speculation that he'd been murdered. It was decided though that he had done that to himself.

Rofl.......

Last I'd heard was that he was being cared for. That his chances of recovery were nil. Also there was in the paper front page no means no and keep your hands to yourself and such for days afterwards. I wonder if he is still alive?

For once I agree with censorship, its cases like this that we need it in sometimes. We are far too liberal with what we allow kids to see, they are far more impressionable than we understand sometimes.

Then be a parent and shut the fucking tv off.

Re do
I am not for this sensationalism that's followed Saddam Husseins death. It's immoral. It places us in the position of the offender. But as far as censorship? Are you fucking kidding me?! You have the choice whether or not to watch a show. You have a choice whether or not to keep an eye out on your kids and talk to them at the end of the day, regardless of how many hours you work. The Media is all encompassing but as a parent you carry a greater responsibility to talk to your kids about the shit they watch how they shouldn't play Hang Man because it will actually result in injury and/or death. Most likely the latter.or put them in afterschool programs, these little fuckers spend too many hours watching TV and eating in the first place anyway.

Agreed.

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This story blows my mind. Kids can be sneaky little fuckers and can easily gain access to material like Saddam's execution, especially with the internet, so while i agree that parents should keep their kids away from these images if they need to, kids have wiles and can get around parental censorship if said parents are not extra extra vigiliant. But the bit that gets me is that they were trying to re-enact his hanging...did the have no concept of death? Did they not realise that by playing 'hangman' literally there was a big chance of them dying?

This is really sad. And bizarre.

It shouldn't have been shown on the TV at all so I'm not going to blame just the parents but also the stations are responsible.

I ccan't believe I'm saying this but...They censored Madonna's crucifix on TV but they didn't censor this? Which one is more dangerous to a child's eyes?

There's nothing wrong with censorship of something THAT bad. It was so well publisized that if you really want to see it, go on the internet or at least leave a screening until after the watershed. And lol at Madonna, people sure have their priorities right.

If kids were impressionable (as oppose to just stupid) enough to imitate this, how come they weren't impressionable enough to digest the words "death" and "penalty"? No-one that impressionable/stupid is any great loss. Social Darwinism, man. What would the point of them surviving to adulthood really have been?

If something's readily available on the Internet, there's no logical reason to censor it from other media. Television news can at least put the footage in a proper context and (possibly) be held accountable if it doesn't. In this case, if the footage has been on TV, it will have been shown with words like "punishment" and "death" mentioned once or twice, so unless a person didn't know what those things were, it'd be pretty facetious to suggest that they were being exposed to something irresponsibly.

This does kinda suggest that I believe there's nothing you shouldn't be able to show on TV as long as you explain what it is and what the consequences are. And to be honest, while it's not necessarily my "official" position, I don't actually have a major problem with that. The Internet really needs to be demythologised for the sake of its usefulness, so I doubt there'd be anything available on-line that one could argue should never be shown on television regardless of how it is presented and contextualised.

thats quite sad

Fo sho

Well it's one less fuckwit in the world I guess.

Natural selection and all that.

But tell that to a small kid, I would have been with you on that but then again my experience with children isnt that expansive (and I'll be assuming here, you probably dont have kids either) so Id probably be over cautious when it comes to enquiring minds. Explanations and logic just dont register. That's why I know a small kid who tried to jump out the window with his superman costume thinking he could fly with it. Kids worry me.