I'm with Toby and Nigel. The girl's being a teenager. They're all like that. They all rebel against their parents. They have to have an outlet for their angst. They grow out of it.
He's reacted in a totally childish way which, if it is representative of his normal behaviour, makes me think that she was being very restrained. Emptying a gun into her laptop! Does he consider that an adult response? The man is a bully.
He's lost his daughter - probably for ever. It would hardly be a surprise if she ran away and what chance would she have then?
Whoever is right or wrong, when I last checked, 14million people had watched that clip. Either the girl will now need psychiatric help and a new identity, or she'll appear on X-Craptor or some such next week
I think its very hard for folk of a certain age (and I include myself in this) to understand why the youth of today feel the need to broadcast what any other civilisation would call a private family mater on the likes of facebook. I know a few years ago, my now Mrs W thoiught it was completely acceptable to post an argument we had had about a very personal and private thing on facebook for all to see. It was incredibly embarasing for me and I was embarased for her, but she didn't see anything wrong with it. It was largely down to the age gap. I did not realise that no longer do the younger generation pick up the phone and call their mates and tell them how much of a pain the the arse their mum, dad, brother, sister, husband, wife etc are being, they post it on facebook. A generation has lost all understand of what should be private.
IMHO facebook is the single biggest threat to civilised society.
While I must admit I was amused by this as its something I could see myself doing in the heat of the moment, its more of a worry that things can drive us to this sort of thing.
I think the problem is that kids (adults too for that matter) don't realise just how far reaching the internet is. We type things on here as if we're speaking to a mate over the phone but we're old enough and wise enough to know that there are very many more people reading this forum than one might imagine. I've never used Facebook but I know one of my staff uses it to keep a track on the underbelly of her kids lives outside the confines of her house.. many parents do. There are too many opportunities to be a friend of one person who is the friend of another e t c and a short dit already has a much wider audience. If that girl was naive enough to think that what she typed was only going to be read by her 'close circle' of friends, that's her misfortune. If however she knew there was a good chance her folks would get to read it.. she may have posted on Facebook as a means of communicating her thoughts to them.. Facebook being an easier medium than face to face!
At the end of the day, we all know that kids can be far too clever for their own good at times. While it was folly for this girl to post what she did, I don't think her dad's response was particularly 'grown up' either. Spectacular yes but grown up, no. The girl does have an excuse.. she's a teenager
That YouTube video has made it to the television broadcast netwroks here. The general consensus appears to be that the teenage daughter may have shown a lack of respect and should not have posted her grievences on Facebook, but the Father is setting a poor example with his behaviour and also posting his response on YouTube.
Firing a gun at that laptop was totaly idiotic redneck behaviour when he could have just hidden the laptop, locked it away, or as Joe suggested, donated it to someone who could use it. Oh, and idiots like him should not be allowed to have a gun! But then I beleve there are far too many guns in this country and it is far too easy to get them - the days of the frontier are long gone.
