'Happy Slapping' Spreads in London

Just a bit of childish, harmless fun, right?

"This isn't happy. It's not funny. Would you like your mother to see you in that position?" said Siobhan Christmas, whose son, Triston, was attacked in February."Would you? It's nothing more than glorified bullying."

"Nightline" met Siobhan Christmas at a cemetery just outside London, at the grave of her 18-year-old son, Triston. He was killed by a so-called happy slapper. On a night out last year, Triston was punched so hard that he reeled backward, smashing his head on a concrete floor. He died a week later. Siobhan saw cell phone images of her son, blood oozing from his mouth and ear as he tried to speak.

"Did it make it worse for [me] as a mother?" Christmas asked. "Yes, much worse. It's the images. I'd have rather he, and this is going to sound completely sick in the head, if he'd been hit by a car, it would have been better."

As Triston lay writhing on the ground, his killer and the killer's gang went to a party and blithely sent the images of Triston to friends.

"The fact that he put it out to everybody to say, 'I'm really cool,'" Christmas said. "Look what I done to Triston Christmas. That's more hurtful."

Police investigating the murder seized cell phones from teenagers at the scene and found 14 other "happy slapping" incidents. The victims were found, and the perpetrators prosecuted.

"Unfortunately, it is all too common and I don't like the term 'happy slapping,'" said Detective Chief Inspector Ellie O'Connor. "I think it undermines what is essentially a serious assault for an unprovoked reason. In my view these are serious attacks. There doesn't appear to be any motive whatsoever, and it seems to be innocent members of the public that are being affected by it."

Why is this sweeping Britain? And why now? The advance of cell phone technology is a major factor, of course. Britain and Europe have embraced that technology.

Many think the craze was inspired by TV shows like "Jackass," which glorify public humiliation and pain. Happy slapping began on London's subway trains and quickly spread to the schoolyard. John Carr monitors new technology and how it can harm kids.