Happy slapping trend: Take away the camera phone = kill the fad

Many students, like biased media hubs are interested in shocking, horrifying and getting the attention of a mass audience via cheap thrills. A camera phone is the perfect mechanism by which young people aim to derive their 60 minutes of fame. The more shocking the video, the greater the attention/ratings/Youtube-views, take the camera away and the opportunity for fame(main motivation for this sort of erratic behavior) is also removed. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_slapping]] "Happy Slapping is known to have started in the South London London Borough of Lewisham,[3][4] in a format known as "Slap Happy TV", where a happy-slapping video would be recorded, and then watched by dozens of people like a TV show. The first newspaper article to use the phrase "happy slapping" was "Bullies film fights by phone", published in The Times Educational Supplement on 21 January 2005, in which reporter Michael Shaw described teachers' accounts of the craze in London schools. The Phrase Finder describes the phenomenon thus: Meaning: Unprovoked attacks on individuals made in order to record the event, and especially the victim's shock and surprise, on video phones. Origin: Happy slapping ... began as a youth craze in the UK in late 2004. Children or passers by are slapped or otherwise mugged by one or more of a gang while others record the event on video and then distribute it by phone or Internet. Initially the attacks were, as the phrase would have us believe, fairly minor pranks ... As the craze spread the attacks became more vicious – often serious assaults known in legal circles as grievous bodily harm." [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_slapping#Media-reported_incidents]] "United Kingdom: On 9 May 2005, a 16-year-old Plant Hill Arts College student was beaten up and left unconscious in a vicious "happy slapping" attack in Blackley. Footage of the attack was circulated on students' phones.[18] United Kingdom, 18 June 2005: Police arrested three 14-year-old boys for the suspected rape of an 11-year-old girl who attended their school in Stoke Newington, London. Authorities were alerted when school staff saw footage from the students' phones.[19] United Kingdom, 7 December 2005: Singer Mylene Klass was happy-slapped in Bermondsey, South London.[20] United Kingdom, December 2005: A 15-year-old-girl, Chelsea O'Mahoney (an alias)[21] and her co-defendants Reece Sargeant, 21, Darren Case, 18, and David Blenman, 17, were all found guilty of the manslaughter of David Morley near Waterloo Station, in London. Barry Lee, 20, and another 17-year-old were cleared of all charges. According to press reports, "The 15-year-old girl had told Morley that she was making a documentary about 'happy slapping' before her gang of friends kicked him to death."[22][23] Denmark, 10 May 2006: Two men aged 17 and 19 attacked a woman in Copenhagen; one kicked the victim while the other filmed the incident using a mobile phone. Two plain clothes police officers saw the incident, and the assailants were immediately arrested and the mobile phone confiscated.[24] Sweden, 1 September 2006: After a 16-year-old boy happy-slapped and hospitalised a 15-year-old Balkan boy in the city of Örebro, the victim's 17-year-old sister stabbed and killed the assailant with a hunting knife and claimed self-defence. The killing was filmed and distributed online.[25] Australia, 23 October 2006: Police in Victoria launched an investigation into the contents of a DVD at the centre of the 2006 Melbourne teenage DVD controversy which contained footage of several teenagers sexually assaulting a girl and setting her hair on fire. Copies of the film were allegedly sold at the Werribee Secondary College for $10.[26][27] United Kingdom, 26 January 2007: Andrew Elvin, 17, was jailed for a minimum of 12 years for the murder of Luke Salisbury, who died three days after being attacked by Elvin on 2 March 2006. Caine Hallett, 18, was sentenced to five years for manslaughter for the same incident, while Danielle Reeves, 18, faced a retrial in May 2007 for manslaughter.[28] United Kingdom, 14 February 2007: Eight youths set upon a 31 year-old man in Brighton, who turned out to be an amateur boxer. Two of the youths were hospitalised by the intended victim and four were arrested for causing an affray.[29] United Kingdom, July 2007: Anthony Anderson, 27, of Hartlepool, urinated on a dying woman while a friend made a video of the incident. He is reported to have yelled "This is YouTube material!" [30] United Kingdom, November 2007: Emily Nakanda, 15, a contestant in the TV show The X Factor, withdrew from the competition after a happy slapping video in which Nakanda allegedly attacks a teenage girl was discovered on the internet.[31] United Kingdom, February 2008: A 15-year-old girl admitted filming the death of Gavin Waterhouse, 29, in a "happy slapping" attack which ruptured his spleen,[32] and was convicted of aiding and abetting manslaughter.[33] She was sentenced to two years detention. The judge stated that the courts had to make an example of such youths.[34] United Kingdom, May 2008: A teenage girl fell to her death from an attic window while trying to escape a "happy slapping" girl gang.[35] United Kingdom, August 2009: A retired care worker was assaulted and killed by two teens as he left his house of worship.[36]"