Floating Life

9RAW: ‘Not my fault’

That is from from Channel Nine News last night, and here is the story as told on The 7.30 Report. What I haven’t thus far been able to link or copy to is the treatment the story received on A Current Affair**, which really is the point of my mentioning it. The reporter there pushed the 16-year-old by constantly hectoring him about his sunglasses, urging him to apologise or grovel on TV, doing the usual impersonation of a crusading representative of public good, but getting for her pains the kind of defiance that, well, you’d expect. Our hero, in the meantime, managed to get himself shirtless on TV, an aspect of the whole affair that probably will boost his MySpace Facebook presence no end.***

It could be argued that this is a story which, aside from the costs and damage it led to and and the sheer numbers — apparently around 500 — involved, thanks to posting the party on the web, is not all that extraordinary in the world of adolescent boys if left to their own devices amid the McMansions. One could then wonder why the ABC bothered. However, The 7.30 Report did rather more than provoke, anger or titillate.

MARY GEARIN: But as helpless as parents might feel in the face of the modern teenager, police and psychologists say parents do have the power and responsibility to determine their children’s actions.
INSPECTOR STEVE SODEN: They have to be aware that the impact that they have on their child is very significant and it doesn’t start with when they’re 16, it starts well before that.
MICHAEL CARR-GREGG: It is insane for any parent to leave their 16-year-old alone at home.
MARY GEARIN: What is an age when you can leave them at home?
MICHAEL CARR-GREGG: The interesting thing about that is that age doesn’t define maturity. And the question you have to ask yourself is: are you the world expert on your kid? Do you actually know that they have a track record of keeping themselves safe? Do they hang out with people who have a track record of keeping themselves safe?

The young things upstairs here used to party like this a couple of years back, until threatened with eviction; now they have in general settled down. Thank God. And of course they have grown up somewhat. But there were occasions, smaller in scale but just as testosterone and alcohol fueled as this was: “guests” smashing large pot plants, turning on the firehose in the stairwell, causing even more havoc as they made their way back to whichever suburb they had emerged from…(See Floating Life’s (successful?) Fatwa.)

As for this young bringer of chaos to the suburbs, well I suppose his sunnies really are famous now… Be interesting to see what he is like in ten or twenty years time.

** UPDATES

The ACA interview is now in my Vodpod.* See also from the Sydney Morning Herald (16 January) Reality TV version of Neighbours an instant hit.

X’s farcical interview with Channel Nine’s A Current Affair on Monday, during which he comprehensively steam-rolled host Leila McKinnon (wife of Channel Nine chief David Gyngell), was uploaded to the YouTube website yesterday afternoon, further expanding his notoriety.

Within minutes of going online, McKinnon’s tabloid TV tut-tutting had backfired, transforming X, who was interviewed shirtless with his pierced nipple on show, from naughty schoolboy to international hero.

He reminds me somewhat of “Carcase”, a very memorable student I taught at Wollongong High in the late 1970s. Carcase just lacked the technology of the 21st century; otherwise he and this person could have been twins. Of course Carcase is probably now a middle-aged parent looking askance at this 16-year-old.

Later

I should add I am glad I am not one of X’s neighbours… The lad has now been taken in for questioning, and I am sure much family business will be in the air too. I suspect the whole thing has got a bit much, even for X, but if he is still at school I am sure he will be able to turn in an interesting “What I Did in the Holidays” assignment.

*** 16 January, evening: There are now several Facebook profiles purporting to be the person we cannot now name.

A 16-year-old boy is facing charges of producing child pornography and creating a public nuisance following a wild party in Melbourne’s outer suburbs last weekend. The teenager and another 16-year-old boy were arrested on Wednesday and questioned by police over their role in the party, which ended with police cars and neighbours’ property being damaged…

The teenage party host - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was initially unrepentant about the affair, adopting a cavalier attitude towards authorities and his parents, who at the time were on holiday interstate, as he cultivated his new-found fame. He maintained a public profile, appearing on television and radio as well as spending time at the beach with friends, and making international headlines. But on Wednesday, police made sure he was kept out of the public spotlight.

After a nearly five-hour grilling at Narre Warren police station, the teen was bundled into the front passenger seat of a marked squad car, which left at high speed, shaking off a pack of pursuing media cars.

Earlier this week, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon lambasted the teenager for his lack of remorse and threatened to bill him up to $20,000 for damages and the cost of deploying police.

His parents - who also cannot be named for legal reasons - met with police on Tuesday and said: “We think he should be punished. We have our own views on what should happen and will discuss it with the police.”

* Still in the Vodpod down in Below the Blog on the Home Page, but it’s not at the top any more. You can visit the pod to see it.