With happy slapping, violence is immortalised on social media. One day in autumn 2012, Angèle Martin heard her 11-year-old son talking about a «fight» that had broken out at school. It was a fairly routine scuffle between teenagers. But a few weeks later, she received a phone call informing her that the altercation was in fact a violent assault. Romain had been lynched, knocked to the ground and then «beaten up» by a dozen children. The scene was filmed and posted on Facebook.
She discovers that her son has been the victim of’happy slapping. Literally meaning «happy slaps» in English, this term refers to the act of recording and sharing a video of an assault on social media. Banned in France since 2007, this practice is the first offence specifically related to digital technology to be included in the Penal Code. Twelve years later, this phenomenon is far from disappearing. With the proliferation of social media, it continues to claim new victims, as in Lagny-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne) last May, when two girls aged 16 and 17 beat a teenage girl to the ground and then posted the video on Snapchat.
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