So called "happy slapping", where gangs of youths use the movie capture capabilities of their mobile phones to film themselves assaulting other people is, pure and simple, bullying.

Those who take pleasure from inflicting pain and humiliation on other people will always find new and yet more cruel ways to ply their cowardly trade, and the utilisation of modern technology is almost inevitable.

The incident detailed in today's T&A, in which a 16-year-old school pupil suffered a black eye after being set upon by thugs, is made all the more worrying because the subject of the attack suffers from epilepsy.

School teachers must take every step to stamp out such behaviour where it happens at or near to school premises. Assault is no laughing matter and bullying can often have tragic consequences. It must be treated with the seriousness which it deserves.

Despite the almost frivolous nickname given to this type of attack, there is nothing funny about being beaten up and sadistically filmed.

It is simple criminality, and those who partake in such incidents and who think they are, in the usual words of the bullies, "just having a laugh", must expect to have the full weight of the law brought against them.

That should mean criminal charges, court appearances, and criminal records. Those cowards who gang up on lone victims would then find little to laugh about.