The Korea Times reports on the "Yacha Rules," a set of informal combat guidelines that have gained traction among students in South Korea. These rules require participants to fight bare-handed and maintain a "code of silence," which means they cannot call the police, even if serious injuries occur. The phenomenon has spread to schools, with an investigation by the Ministry of Education revealing the issue on September 9. According to the newspaper, these fights are becoming more common and are being used as a way to justify violence and school bullying. Some participants believe that fighting under these rules protects them from criminal penalties, as reported by the news agency Yonhap. The "Yacha Rules" have taken on a game-like quality in some schools, according to editorialist Lee Myeong-hee of the Kyunghyang Shinmun. These fights are increasingly frequent, with physically stronger students often forcing their classmates to participate. These confrontations typically occur without the knowledge of teachers or parents. Some students film the fights and share the videos on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok, using the hashtag #YachaRule. In some cases, the videos are even sold for profit. On YouTube, the Yacha Club channel, which specializes in these videos, has more than 500,000 subscribers. Some of the videos show fights taking place in underground parking lots or on the street. According to a survey by the Ministry of Education, cited by many South Korean media outlets, 2.9 percent of students from elementary to high school have experienced school violence. The Korea Times notes that this is the highest level since 2013 and has been increasing for six consecutive years. Seong Yun-sook, an associate researcher at the National Institute of Youth Policy, suggests that the more time young people spend on screens, the fewer opportunities they have to interact with others, which can hinder the development of empathy. The issue of extreme violence in schools is not new in South Korea and has been a recurring theme in films and television series. The editorialist of the Kyunghyang Shinmun recalls that the 2006 film The Art of Fighting depicted a protagonist desperately trying to learn how to fight to escape such situations. More recently, the Netflix series Que ça vous serve de leçon! (translated as That Should Teach You), released in June, opens with the suicide of a student who was a victim of bullying. The series also features a character forced by bullies to humiliate another student, highlighting the severe consequences of school violence. These fears were tragically realized in May, when a woman in her twenties died after being forced by a couple of the same age to fight two teenagers under the Yacha Rules.