A bullying charity has criticised a music video which features ginger children being rounded up and executed in a desert.
British star M.I.A.'s graphic nine-minute film for her track Born Free includes a scene where a 12-year-old red-haired boy is shot in the head.
Other red-haired youths are made to run through a mine field.
The Mercury Music Prize-nominated rapper - known for her hard-hitting videos - appears to be using the example of "ginger genocide" to highlight the issue of minorities and racism in society.
But charity Beatbullying slammed the film, saying it could lead to more abuse against red-haired children.
"It's completely inappropriate, and we should not be sending out a message that people should be targeted for their appearance," spokeswoman Sherry Adhami told Sky News Online.
"Unfortunately we seem to live in a society where when people are ginger-haired, people find it funny for some reason, and they are bullied for it."
The video was initially available for anyone to see on YouTube, but the site has since given it an 18-plus age restriction.
A spokesman for the firm said: "Our policy is to age-restrict content that has been flagged by the community and identified by our policy enforcement team as content that, while not violating our community guidelines, is not suitable for users under age 18."
M.I.A. posted a series of rants to her 103,000 followers on Twitter, initially claiming her US record company had pulled the video from YouTube.
Afterwards she backtracked and said the firm was not to blame.
The video can still be viewed on her own website - without any age restriction.
Meanwhile, the 12-year-old child actor who is shot in the head in the video has defended the controversial clip.
Ian Hamrick told celebrity website TMZ: "The video is definitely not for kids - I haven't even seen the full video myself.
"But for all the adults and people in different countries who are doing that in real life...doing the genocides to whatever: Italians, Africans, wherever it's from, it's still genocide.
"So it's showing violence to end violence."
Caroline Sullivan, music writer for The Guardian, told Sky News Online she does not believe music videos are becoming more violent, and that if anything they are becoming more sexual than brutal.
She added: "I think M.I.A. is making the point that if we segregated all ginger people as a minority - in the same way as black and Asian people - there would be an enormous outcry, and that we don't seem to get the same reaction when black people are treated in this way.
"As far as the ginger child being shot in the head, M.I.A. is quite an angry, politicised artist, and her videos give a graphic depiction of violence in order to make a political point.
"I think she uses violence in a different way to how a gangster rapper does."
SKY
I personally love the video. I just think some people can't see beyond the end of their nose.
