"Don't Report Even If Injured": 'Yacha Rules' School Violence Justified Under Guise of Mutual Agreement

"I wanted to beat everyone up, so I came on (this YouTube channel). I'm planning to fracture the other person's face in three or four places."

A male student who identified himself as 17 years old made these remarks while appearing on a YouTube channel featuring so-called 'Yacha rules' content.

Shortly afterward, he engaged in a bare-body fight with a 19-year-old male student wearing only boxing gloves.

Rough physical altercations continued, with the two throwing punches at each other and tackling one another, but no one intervened.

About a dozen men surrounding the area cheered and clapped as if watching a mixed martial arts match.

This was because it was a so-called 'Yacha rule' fight, where participants agreed to fight while fully aware that they could get hurt.

Yacha rules refer to bare-knuckle fights held without any spatial restrictions, which have recently been spreading among teenagers like a play culture.

With an atmosphere forming where elementary, middle, and high school students alike challenge others to fights by saying "Let's do Yacha" and enjoy it, concerns are growing that it is being abused as a means to justify school violence.

As Yacha rules spread through YouTube and social media (SNS), phrases like "Let's settle this with Yacha rules" are naturally being exchanged among teenagers.

Yacha rule fights come with the condition that "even if you get hurt, you must not report it to the police."

Because of this, even when severely injured, victims cannot readily report it out of fear of being criticized for breaking the promise.

Furthermore, Yacha fights mostly take place in underground parking lots or alleys, away from the eyes of adults.

Since the scene only consists of the fighting parties and peer spectators, an atmosphere of looking the other way rather than stopping the danger is easily formed.

The problem is that a fight is established under the excuse of 'agreement' even if there is a huge difference in physical build.

For students at a physical disadvantage, this inevitably amounts to unilateral assault.

A middle school student surnamed Lee (16) said, "It has become such a common expression that friends even jokingly say, 'Do you want to Yacha?' It seems they think of Yacha as a 'fighting game' done by mutual agreement."

A high school student surnamed Park (18) said, "It seems they treat the very act of filming each other fighting and showing it to others like a game. There is also a strong atmosphere of thinking it doesn't matter because they say they did Yacha by mutual agreement, assuming it is fine or doesn't harm others."

In fact, there are no small number of cases where Yacha is regarded as a sport, prank, or game, justifying school violence.

Seo (55), a current middle school teacher, said, "Students say they do Yacha to test their strength or skills, but in reality, it is often a case of a strong student bullying or flaunting power over another student. It is nothing more than school violence disguised as a play culture."

Education authorities and police have defined Yacha rules as a new form of violence and stepped up responses.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education recently stated in a school newsletter, "Special caution is required as a new type of violence in the form of Yacha rules is occurring, stemming from the misunderstanding that mutual agreement exempts one from punishment for school violence. We ask for careful guidance and attention at home."

The Sokcho Police Station in Gangwon Province also produced promotional materials in April led by School Violence Protection Officers (SPOs) from the Women and Youth Division to publicize that Yacha rules constitute school violence.

However, nationwide publicity and preventive education are still not being sufficiently carried out.

Experts advise that the distorted culture of blocking reports under the pretext of prior agreement must be corrected, and a comprehensive pan-governmental protection system should be urgently established.

Kim Seok-min, head of the counseling division at the Blue Tree Foundation (BTF), an organization specializing in school violence prevention, pointed out, "Children who have been exposed to combat content consume it like entertainment or accept it as a means to confirm social hierarchies or maintain face."

Kim said, "Platforms and relevant organizations must jointly establish a social media monitoring response system, and a protection system where education offices, school violence protection officers, and social workers can intervene together must be operated."

Lee Hyo-min, a professor in the Department of Police Administration at Youngsan University, emphasized, "Yacha rules are a means of justifying violence regardless of whether the parties agreed or not, and it is a crime punishable by criminal penalties for bodily injury. Since it is difficult to eradicate solely with the warning of criminal punishment, comprehensive pan-governmental measures including pre-emptive education centered on educational institutions and prevention of secondary victimization are necessary."

(Photo: Capture from YouTuber Real Man channel, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.