Analysis of 23 representative cases nationwide reveals a pattern of coerced fights, filming and intimidation
Case No. 1: "That was boring. Fight again."
Last August, in the underground parking garage of a building in Sejong, a first-year high school student watched two middle schoolers scuffle for 25 seconds before calling it off — not to stop the violence, but because he found it dull. He ordered them to go again. The fight escalated at his command, and one of the students was punched repeatedly in the face, suffering a broken nose.
Case No. 2: "I was just asked to make up the numbers … "
Last April, a third-year middle school student in Gyeonggi Province agreed to show up for a "yacha" bout after a friend asked him simply to fill a spot. He arrived to find more than 20 spectators and fled — only to return after being threatened with a beating at school. When he refused to fight, he was told to kneel or pay the taxi fare for everyone present. The student who organized the fight filmed a video of the victim agreeing not to press charges, then punched him in the face immediately after.
Behind the fights that students call "yacha" are peers who summon opponents, egg them on and hold up cameras. Even students who refused were coerced into fighting, and videos were made to show that both sides had "agreed." What was packaged as a mutual contest between individuals was in practice school violence orchestrated and recorded by multiple students.
The fight videos have also emerged as a revenue stream beyond peer entertainment. Provocative footage draws social media audiences, and organizers have used promises of unreleased clips to funnel viewers toward illegal gambling sites.
The Herald Business analyzed 23 representative school violence cases involving "yacha rules" nationwide — provided by People Power Party lawmaker Jeong Seong-guk of the National Assembly's Education Committee — and confirmed a specific pattern: coerced fights, filming and distribution, and threats to prevent victims from reporting. Yacha rules refer to a variant fighting format with no rules or protective gear. Police describe it as "a method that legitimizes real violence as a game or sport." Inaccurate information has also spread online claiming that injuries sustained in a yacha fight carry no legal consequences because both parties agreed to fight.
![Representative school violence cases involving "yacha rules." [Provided by Rep. Jeong Seong-guk's office / AI-generated]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/01/news-p.v1.20261001.055898d3cafb4c63a1d2fde5e56e46eb_P1.png)
Fights forced, reports blocked: school violence dressed up as mutual consent
Yacha rules represent a new and insidious form of school violence. Perpetrators justify it as sparring or a kind of arranged game — but the pattern is one of forcing unwilling students to fight, filming the confrontation unilaterally, and then using a claim of prior consent to prevent victims from going to authorities.
In Seoul this year, a group of third-year middle school students agreed to a fight with rules against hitting the face or head, stopping when one side surrendered. The victim was hit in the face while wearing glasses and suffered a dental injury.
Bystanders did not intervene — in some cases they blocked escape routes. In Busan in July, a third-year middle school student was challenged to fight after a shoulder bump. When he refused, he was told to kneel. Another student then stepped in to say kneeling was no longer an option and volunteered to referee.
The pressure intensified when crowds gathered. In February, a second-year middle school student in Daejeon was told only two people would show up at a park — he arrived to find about 30. The crowd urged the fight to begin. When police arrived, the group scattered, then reassembled after officers left and assaulted the victim again. The situation ended only after a second police response.
Throughout this process, perpetrators manufactured evidence of "mutual consent" to use against victims. In one case, a victim who had fled was threatened into returning, filmed agreeing not to report the incident, then beaten. The perpetrator first made the victim hurl insults on camera, and after the assault forced him to film an apology for those insults. Watching only the recorded consent and apology, it was nearly impossible to detect the coercion and threats that preceded them.
Victims were also pressured into promising not to report. In one case in South Jeolla Province, a student said he was told to choose among three options: fight in a yacha bout, take a beating without fighting back, or kneel and be slapped. In another case, multiple students told a victim he could only go home after he fought. Perpetrators consistently maintained that the fights were mutually agreed upon.
The broader trend is reflected in official data. The Ministry of Education's first school violence survey of 2026 found that 2.9 percent of students reported experiencing school violence — up 0.4 percentage points from last year. Victimization rates rose across all school levels: 5.7 percent at elementary schools, 2.3 percent at middle schools and 0.8 percent at high schools. The share of physical assault among reported types of violence also grew, reaching 15.7 percent, up 1.1 percentage points from last year.
![A form of school violence known as "yacha rules" has emerged in schools, in which stronger students gather weaker ones, stage fights and film them for online distribution or sale. The photo shows students in a standoff. [AI-generated]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/01/news-p.v1.20260909.698ec809e1cd4dbfab3ca4ac840452ef_P1.png)
Beatings as spectacle: videos used for blackmail and profit
The harm did not end when the fighting stopped. Videos of assaults or forced apologies were shared among other students, turning victims into objects of peer entertainment. The same cameras used to pressure students into fighting became tools for spreading the violence further.
In the Daejeon case, footage of the incident was shared in a group chat that excluded the victim. A student involved later deleted the video and the chat out of fear of punishment. In Daegu, a fight among third-year middle school students filmed inside a girls' changing room was passed to other students and played back in a location where multiple people could watch.
Students who refused to fight were not spared from being filmed. In South Jeolla Province, a sixth-grade elementary school student who declined a fight was forced to kneel and apologize on camera, and that footage was distributed. Not only assaults but also scenes of coerced humiliation were captured on video. Victims were left with the anxiety of not knowing who had seen the footage or how far it had spread.
The videos also carried the risk of escalating into financial extortion. The Korean National Police Agency has warned of blackmail cases in which perpetrators demand money in exchange for taking down fight footage. Police advise victims not to pay, and instead to preserve records of conversations and demands as evidence before reporting. The person holding the video can use the threat of its release to pressure victims again.
Online, some have gone further, using fight videos as a commercial tool. Some Telegram channels attached links to illegal gambling sites alongside yacha footage, advertising access to unreleased clips for users who signed up with affiliated sites. The model draws audiences in with provocative fight scenes and funnels them toward gambling platforms. The violence has moved beyond peer sharing to become a source of outside profit.
![A student distressed over videos related to yacha rules. [AI-generated]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/01/news-p.v1.20261001.12befe064dab477f88f00c1f1f994ea9_P1.png)
Beyond punishing the attacker: stopping video distribution and retaliation
Addressing yacha rules requires first dismantling the belief that consent makes it acceptable. Agreements extracted in an atmosphere where refusal is dangerous are being used as a shield against reporting. A school police officer, identified only as A, said: "Yacha rules involve only a superficial form of consent — in reality it is coerced violence. Students need to be taught that the idea of 'we agreed, so there's no problem' is simply wrong."
The officer also stressed that prevention education must go beyond the act of hitting to cover the roles of those who arrange fights and film or distribute the footage. Park, a school violence prevention counselor, said the reality in which students who report yacha-related violence are treated as troublemakers must change. "It's not enough to warn that fighting leads to punishment," Park said. "Students need to be told that every step — arranging a fight, filming it, distributing the footage — is part of the problem."
Authorities have begun to respond. The Korean National Police Agency and the Ministry of Education have classified yacha rules as a new form of school violence and last month issued an alert — the 11th notice on emerging types — and distributed it nationwide. They are also reviewing measures to hold accountable students who arrange, facilitate or film fights without directly participating.
A Ministry of Education official said it was difficult to make blanket statements about what actions were or were not possible, but added that the ministry was in discussions with provincial and metropolitan education offices on how to communicate reasonable judgment criteria to school violence review committee members.
The ministry also signaled a tougher stance on the distribution and sale of videos. "We view the sale of footage as an act of exploiting the victim — it is fundamentally wrong," the official said. "We will work with education offices to investigate and review such cases in a systematic way."
brunch@heraldcorp.com
