[Anchor]

The number of students reporting school violence has reached an all-time high this year. Recently, a new type of school violence has also been spreading indiscriminately among teenagers.

Reporter Dong Eunyeong has the details.

[Reporter]

Two students are engaged in a fierce brawl.

Fighting barehanded without protective gear and under an agreement not to report each other even if injured, this is the so-called "Yacha" fight.

Known to have started from adult combat content on a YouTube channel, "Yacha" has quietly seeped into classrooms and is spreading like a trend.

[Middle School Student: They hit and punch each other without rules. Until someone surrenders. It is famous. It is not just famous, everyone simply knows about it, among middle and high school students.]

The bigger problem is that these Yacha videos are being traded in Telegram group chat rooms and elsewhere.

They are also fueling fights by becoming a means of making money, racking up millions of views on YouTube and social media.

[Kim Seok-min / Manager, BTF Blue Tree Foundation School Violence SOS Center: When they upload or post these videos, there is a financial aspect involved... and their number of followers or subscribers increases. They even sell those accounts.]

As Yacha trends, a vicious cycle of violence continues where even vulnerable students cannot refuse and are forced to fight.

[High School Student: They just throw two people in and make them fight. When an atmosphere is created telling them to fight, some friends end up fighting because of that.]

According to the school violence survey conducted by the Ministry of Education this year, 2.9% of all students responded that they had experienced school violence, marking an all-time high.

In particular, physical violence and group bullying increased slightly compared to the previous year, and analysts suggest that the Yacha trend has had an impact.

[Sung Yoon-sook / Senior Researcher, National Youth Policy Institute: Teenagers fundamentally have a strong peer conformity phenomenon. They end up imitating these things regarding peers or seniors.]

Regardless of agreements between the parties involved, forcing violence and fights, as well as distributing such videos, are all subject to legal liability.

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

Regarding videos distributed online, they plan to respond promptly with relevant organizations such as the Korea Communications Standards Commission.

(Video by Lee Chan-su and Choi Dae-woong | Video editing by Lee Sang-min | Design by Kim Han-gil)