What Is 'Yacha'? Dangerous Fight Trend Spreads Among Youths via Social Media

[Anchor]

According to this year's Ministry of Education survey, the number of students reporting school violence has reached an all-time high. A trend spreading like wildfire among youths, dubbed "Yacha," has been pointed to as a new type of school violence and a major catalyst behind it.

Reporter Dong Eunyeong explains.

[Reporter]

Two students engage in a fierce physical fight.

Known as "Yacha," these brawls take place bare-handed and without protective gear, under a mutual agreement not to report each other even if injuries occur.

While the phenomenon is known to have originated from adult fighting content on a YouTube channel, "Yacha" has deeply penetrated classrooms and is spreading like a trend.

[Middle school student: You trade blows without any rules. Anyone fights until someone surrenders. It is famous. Well, it is not just famous, pretty much all middle and high school students know about it.]

The bigger problem is that "Yacha" videos are being traded in Telegram group chats and other digital spaces.

As they generate millions of views on YouTube and social media, serving as a means to make money, they further encourage students to fight.

[Kim Seok-min / Manager, BTF Tree of Youth School Violence SOS Center: When these videos are uploaded or posted, there are financial gains involved... and the number of followers or subscribers increases. People even sell those accounts.]

As the "Yacha" trend grows, even vulnerable students who cannot refuse are forced into fights, sustaining a vicious cycle of violence.

[High school student: They just throw two people in and make them fight. If an atmosphere is created to pressure you into fighting, some friends end up just doing it.]

According to the school violence survey conducted by the Ministry of Education this year, 2.9 percent of all surveyed students responded that they had experienced school violence, marking the highest figure on record.

In particular, physical violence and group bullying increased slightly compared to last year, with analysts pointing to the "Yacha" trend as a contributing factor.

[Sung Yoon-sook / Senior Researcher, National Youth Policy Institute: Youths inherently have a strong tendency to conform to their peers. They tend to imitate these behaviors from friends, seniors, or other peers.]

Regardless of any agreement between the parties involved, forcing fights, coercing violence, and distributing such videos all entail legal liability.

Last month, the Ministry of Education and the police designated "Yacha" as a new type of school violence and issued an alert.

Authorities plan to respond swiftly to videos distributed online in cooperation with relevant organizations, including the Korea Communications Standards Commission.

Reported by Lee Chan-su and Choi Dae-woong | Video by Lee Sang-min | Graphics by Kim Han-gil
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.