‘Happy slapping’ — essentially violently attacking someone while it’s recorded with a videophone — is a growing problem in the UK, with British Transport police investigating 200 incidents in the last six months in London’s public transport system alone, with who knows how many attacks going unreported. This isn’t harmless childplay, the ferociousness and utter stupidity of these attacks is appalling. And the hooligans have embraced user-created content: they share the videos via Bluetooth, MMS and the Web, often describing their efforts as ‘Happy Slap TV’.
Blogger Alfie Dennen has cobbled some videos he’s found together to make the point that these kids are violent criminals (via The Mobile Technology Weblog). It’s grim and disgusting footage, showing clips of kids attacking not just their friends, but complete strangers minding their own business (this video depicts scenes of real violence, so skip over it unless you’re prepared to be offended).
It appears on the whole that technology — for once — isn’t being blamed, but some schools have banned cameraphones in hopes of stopping such attacks. While one would be hard-pressed to argue mobile technology causes these attacks, there’s no denying it has helped spread the fad. That’s perhaps the most worrying bit — Bluetooth and MMS make it easy for these kids to share their videos with others, quickly turning things into a competition.” (The Feature)
