Politicians declare war on patostreaming. Monika Rosa: This is a vicious circle

Magdalena Frindt, “Wprost”: Should freak fights be outlawed?

Monika Rosa, KO MP, chairwoman of the Committee for Children and Youth: The question is whether today we have legal tools that would enable the actual outlawing of freak fights. First of all, we should focus on introducing a high age of access for minors both to this type of events and to conferences that promote them.

At what level?

I would set this limit at least 16 or 18 years of age, because the events preceding freak fight galas clearly promote pathological behavior, hatred, hatred, extreme violence, and all this has an impact on the development of young people who come across this type of materials. .

More than 1/3 of teenagers in Poland watch patostreams, and their removal from the digital media space is progressing at a very slow pace. Platforms do not take sufficient responsibility for this content. There should be ostracism around those who derive real profits from promoting violence and hatred. These types of galas should not be organized in public stadiums…

Recently, one of such galas took place at the National Stadium. Minister of Sport Sławomir Nitras announced that he would not like something like this to happen again in the future. But shouldn’t we have acted earlier and simply blocked this event?

I believe that we are late in reacting to the spread of Patho Games. We should have taken specific actions much earlier in response to the open promotion of violence and hatred.

You can play the role of devil’s advocate and use the arguments used by the organizers of freak fight galas. They claim that events of this type sparked a boom in combat sports, and kids moved away from their computers and started practicing. Is this argument the organizers’ last resort to find any positives from their activities?

If these types of events involve people who have had trouble with the law, who promote pathological behavior, and who throw mud at each other, then nothing good can come from it. Children are already living in a world full of hatred, and if we add pathological games to this, this is not a good path.

There are other ways to promote sports. There are distinguished figures who can be real authorities for the young generation. We don’t need patho-celebrities to become our children’s idols. There are no positive arguments that would justify the creation of this type of events. There are only dark sides. All that matters here is money and the desire for profit.

Not only patho-celebrities take part in freak fight galas. The cage featured, among others: Tomasz Adamek, Zbigniew Bartman, Piotr Lisek. And although these athletes did not enter the gutter level of conversations, their participation itself is a promotion of the event.

The presence of athletes gives credibility to freak fight galas, gives them rank and removes them from the gutter classification. I have great respect for athletes, including those who represent martial arts. But there are ethics in sport, there are standards, rules of operation and respect for the opponent.

Athletes who decide to take part in freak fights must ask themselves whether they really want to tarnish their image by promoting this type of events. But it is also a question for commercial companies whether they really want to sponsor such campaigns, or whether companies that have products for children and direct their advertising to them want to contribute to something like this.

A year has passed since Pandora Gate scandalwhich showed the threats lurking on the Internet. Last year, a project on pathostreaming was submitted to the Parliament. However, I have the impression that apart from discussions, which are also needed, there is a lack of real action.

We need to act in many ways. First: specific legislative steps need to be taken. There is a need to impose obligations and real responsibility on digital platforms for the content they make available. This is primarily about real verification of the age of access to content such as patostreaming or pornography. Currently, the Ministry of Digitization is preparing a project to limit young people’s access to harmful content. Already in November, during the meeting of the Committee for Children and Youth, we will talk about its assumptions.

There is also a “Charter of Children’s Rights in Business”. It is a soft tool intended to encourage specific actions to protect the rights of minors. It’s about introducing inviolable standards. In addition to tough regulations, social pressure on building corporate responsibility is also important.

Pathostreaming has a negative impact on the development of young people, but we also need to ask why content that promotes substance abuse or aggression towards other people or animals should be available at all – also to adults. Why should anyone make money from this?

I will repeat once again: digital platforms should be obliged to control the content available on them and remove those that violate standards. I hope that the Digital Service Act, i.e. the EU assumptions that must also be implemented in Poland, will be an important step in regulating these issues.

The next element is: education and digital hygiene.

Is this missing?

In schools, I am talking about this with Minister Barbara Nowacka, there should be lessons about social media. Children should receive a package of information on how to use social media in a safe way, what are the threats online, how to arm yourself with tools to protect yourself against hate, and what may be the consequences of sharing your image online. You have to bet on this.

The data is terrifying. Children spend an average of five hours a day on the Internet, and on weekends this time increases to six hours. This is a slice of life. Over a million children use the largest pornographic website available in Poland. Research shows that over 30 percent teenagers watch patostreams.

Some parents are not aware of what their children are doing on the Internet. There are also those who push away possible threats, being convinced that it does not affect their loved ones. This approach does not solve the problem.

There is also the issue of hate, which does not end when the school doors close, and can continue online 24 hours a day. Sometimes children have eight accounts on social media because they are afraid that if they do not register somewhere, they may become the object of ridicule and stigmatization.

The scale of the challenges is enormous. The digital world was not created for children, but they have been involved in it from the very beginning of their conscious lives.

The “Stop Hate” conference was held in the Sejm, and one of the topics discussed was hate speech on the Internet. Recently, the story of a teenager who committed suicide and who experienced hatred from her peers for years was publicized.

Peer violence has always existed and will probably never be completely eliminated, but actions must be taken to at least limit it. From the research of the Foundation. Stefan Batory shows that 95 percent young people encountered hate speech in the digital space, and 75 percent in real life.

This is a vicious circle. And all this is connected with pathostreams, pathogals. When children watch such content, they model it, absorb it, and then transfer it to their own lives.

That is why, I will repeat once again, we so much need legal regulations and imposing responsibility on digital platforms – efficient action, e.g. in the field of removing hateful comments or photos that may be harmful to specific people and were, for example, generated using artificial intelligence. We need to educate children so they know where they can seek help. We also need to strengthen the awareness of parents and teachers so that they react quickly when they see disturbing signals.

We cannot operate on the principle: from tragedy to tragedy. This is not our responsibility.