Is it illegal for websites to host children fighting with the purpose of humiliation

Question

A video recently came to my attention that involved two children ages approximately 5,and 6, or so and the video consisted of the boy and girl wrestling - but not in a fair competition, but to humiliate the little boy. He was called a sissy and similar derogatory terms, and it was posted on a website that hosts some adult/pornographic content as well as discussion groups/forums. There was no question about the intent of the video because the voice-overs flat out said it was to show the little boy what a worthless sissy he was. Obviously, this can be emotionally dangerous to a first or even second grade child who is just realizing the reality of societal definitions of masculinity/femininity. And I have another aspect to consider. What can happen legally to the promoters/parents for promoting and distributing on the internet

Answer 1

In the US, derogatory speech is protected under the First Amendment. There have been a number of attempts to limit internet speech that is deemed to be "harmful to minors" which have not been successful, and at that the laws have based the characterization of harm as "being obscene" pursuant to the Miller test. Moreover the law were limited to commercial dissemination to children, whereas your scenario is about children.

It is possible that a parent of a participant would get into child-welfare type legal trouble for encouraging their child to assault another child, but that would not include encouraging a child to use unkind words against another child.