Just when you thought it was safe to go outside…

A rather undelightful video has emerged on Facebook showing a very new-looking baby being repeatedly dunked upside down into a bucket of water by a carer.

[The video] shows the baby being twisted by her arms and held upside down from her legs as she is picked up and partly submerged in the water dozens of time. She cries at first but stops after the carer changes the way she is holding the infant.

Don’t worry, this is one time you’re not going to get the video, as I think this image will suffice. If you really want to watch it though, HERE is the link. I wouldn’t recommend it.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the UK has criticised Facebook for allowing the video to be posted, calling the act “callous” and “dreadful”, and Facebook absolutely refuses to remove it. The company has “acknowledged that the video was “upsetting and disturbing”, but said its users should still be able to watch it”.

A spokeswoman for Facebook explains their reasoning:

Like others, we find the behaviour in this video upsetting and disturbing. In cases like these, we face a difficult choice: balancing people’s desire to raise awareness of behavior like this against the disturbing nature of the video. In this case, we are removing any reported instances of the video from Facebook that are shared supporting or encouraging this behavior. In cases where people are raising awareness or condemning the practice, we are marking reported videos as disturbing, which means they have a warning screen and are accessible only to people over the age of 18.

Facebook has added a warning screen to the start of the clip and has no plans to remove it.

In the meantime, the NSPCC has made a lot of noise about how it “wants the government to create a new organisation armed with the legal powers to ensure internet companies are transparent and accountable” for this sort of thing.

[Source: The BBC]