The "Happy Slap"

Happy Slapping...

is a fad where a person is targeted by bullies for a violent assault while being recorded by an accomplice (usually a cell phone). These assaults also fall into sexual attacks or demeaning actswhich are used to sadistically surprise the victim at their expense. What may have started as a joke or prank has reached extreme situations, sometimes with a fatal outcome.
What once was just a mild physical threat meant to intimidate and embarass someone has taken on serious meanings. Born out of South London as "Slap TV" was originally bullies fighting by phone and soon became a huge deviant craze. France has now criminalized "happy slapping" and the video assistant is also complicit as an accessory in the crime. In some cases the videos were used as evidence in court against the new wave of cyber bully. Some of the mixed martial arts and professional wrestling is very popular with teens, is promoting more violence and has gone underground, video recorded and posted on the internet for the world to see.

Humiliation is no longer just a schoolyard event but a global one.

Mike Bogdanski
www.mikebogdanski.com