The video, which shows 16-year-old Victoria Lindsay of Lakeland, Florida, being beaten by her classmates a week ago had 700,000 hits on YouTube and was among the video-sharing website's top 20 most-viewed postings.

The attack was an act of revenge on Victoria for posting comments about some of her assailants on her webpage on MySpace. She was left with two black eyes and a concussion after six girls repeatedly beat and taunted her in an attack filmed by two boys.

'It is absolutely an animalistic attack,' said Lakeland Sheriff Grady Judd. 'They lured her...for the express purpose of filming the attack and posting it on the Internet.'

The authorities said the attackers intended to use the video to become Web celebrities.

One of the attackers invited Victoria to stay over and the attack took place in her home. The tape showed Victoria being hit in the face and her head being slammed into a wall, knocking her unconscious. She awoke on the living room couch surrounded by the girls, who took turns hitting and kicking her.

The incident has outraged the American public, with TV reports describing how hard the beating was to watch.

'For whatever reason...this YouTube has gone too far,' Ms Talisa Lindsay, the victim's mother, said in an interview outside their home.

Her husband Patrick went even further, declaring that Internet companies were to blame for what happened.

'As far as I'm concerned,' he said, 'MySpace is the anti-Christ for children.'

Victoria has since pulled out of her high school and will be home-tutored. She still has to get over her emotional trauma besides having trouble with her hearing and vision.

After spending a night in jail, six of the eight teenagers are out on bail of US$30,000 (S$41,000) each. They have been ordered not to contact each other and to stay away from online networking sites.

They are also under house arrest and can leave only to attend school or court.

All are to be tried as adults, Foxnews.com reported.

Sheriff Judd said he hoped the attention the case had drawn would raise awareness about the Web's power to desensitise youth to violence.

NEW YORK TIMES, ASSOCIATED PRESS