Teen Gatherings of Old A New World With Today's Internet

Used to be 20-25 years ago when I was in high school and college when we wanted to have a party or get-togethers we spread the word around school a couple days before the weekend that Friday night after the football games we'd all be going to Joe's or Suzi's house who's parents were out of town etc to blow off steam and break some rules. Then maybe 20- 30, sometimes a little more or little less mostly invited people showed up, and for the most part everything remained manageable and humane, even with drinking and drug use sometimes prevalent.

Fortunately the bad times in my time were few and far between, and for the most part the parties I, or my siblings and our friends hosted went without a serious hitch, and maybe getting grounded for a week or two a couple times through high school was the most serious price paid for our transgressions.

Not so today in the age of the internet and worldwide instant communications as these parties have turned into sometimes grossly abused and deadly affairs for those involved due to unwanted, unruly and unmanageable guests finding out from some ill advised YouTube video or Craigs list posting, or in AOL chatrooms when their popularity was the hip thing, etc etc. America has seen quite a few of these affairs end up this way over the past few years.

This happened in England the other day and the family involved were the victims of some real thuggish behavior from some wild punks who hopefully will be paying a dear price for their animalistic behavior.

Here is a screencap of the Youtube post that made it onto the web for this party:

Family beaten as YouTube party descends into chaos

Oddly Enough | Reuters: "LONDON (Reuters) - A teen-ager was airlifted to hospital and his father had his nose broken when gatecrashers went on the rampage at a 16th birthday party after details were posted on YouTube, police and media reports said Friday."

More than 100 uninvited teenagers descended on the family house, stole whisky and champagne, smashed windows and started fighting, according to reports.

Engineer David Worthy, 53, was punched in the face when he tried to turn away a group of youths, while his son Stephen, 18, was badly beaten.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Police in western England said an air ambulance took the teen-ager to hospital in Bath with suspected spinal injuries.

His mother Susan Worthy, 52, a nurse, said they feared for their lives as the youths attacked the outside of the house.

"We were scared stiff," she was reported as saying in the Times newspaper. "There was a loud bang and the windows smashed. I thought they were going to kill us."

Her husband said: "One was swearing right in my face so I pushed him away and then all hell let loose." continued here

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