Kids and teenagers often land their parents into trouble. But, only a few can acclaim getting their parents fired from their job. Brooke Amelia Peterson—a regular Vlogger on YouTube, is one of them. Apple reportedly dismissed Amelia’s father—an engineer at the company, from his job after they found him violating a company rule.
The American tech giant Apple reportedly fired an engineer working at the company after discovering that his daughter had leaked information about the unreleased iPhone X on her YouTube channel.Showing off her ‘dad’s’ new iPhone X, Brooke Amelia Peterson—a Youtuber, posted a video with the smart phone in October of last year. The video includes footage of Apple’s cafeteria and showcases many of the new iPhone’s features.
A few days after it was posted, the video managed to make it to YouTube’s top trending videos list and this resulted in Brooke Amelia’s father being fired from his job. Not long after, the video was removed from YouTube without any explanation. After her dad’s sacking, Brooke Amelia posted a video explaining why her dad was fired from Apple. Here is what she said in the follow-up video:
“I had no idea that this was a violation,”. “My father takes full responsibility for letting me film his iPhone X.” “Apple let him go. At the end of the day, when you work for Apple, it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are. If you break a rule, they just have no tolerance.”
She further added, “They had to do what they had to do’. ‘I’m not mad at Apple. I’m not going to stop buying Apple products…My dad had a really great run at Apple.’ ‘I don’t think he deserved this, but we’re okay,” “We’re good.”
How It All Transpired
Expect no leniency if you break an Apple Rule. These are not our words but those of people working at Apple. According to them, Apple’s first rule is that you do not talk about Apple and the second rule of the company is also the same, ‘You DO Not Talk About Apple’. And, what worse than talking about Apple? Displaying an unreleased product in public. This is a lesson an Apple engineer and his YouTuber daughter learned the hard way.
It all starts with Brooke Amelia Peterson—the daughter of the sacked Apple employee, recording a video in Silicon Valley. The video started like any other YouTube video posted by teenagers with footages of shopping for makeup and clothing and then a visit to Apple’s campus for what seemed like dinner with her father. The two head to the office cafeteria and start munching on pizzas and this is when the crime is committed. Brooke Amelia’s father hands her the iPhone X to test. And, this is when YouTube viewers get to see footage of the new iPhone X for a good forty-five seconds including the phone’s design and camera. Here is part of her Vlog video that started it all:
The man fired from his job and Brooke Amelia’s father is Ken Bauer—a now former engineer at Apple. Neither Bauer nor Apple commented on the former’s sacking from the company. Tim Cook—the chief executive of Apple could pardon Bauer and welcome him back into the company fold, but history reveals that Apple shows no mercy to leaks whether they are done on purpose or are accidental. Following are a few lessons to learn from Bauer’s firing from Apple.
Going Viral isn’t Necessarily a Good Thing
Ask any novice YouTuber about their biggest wish and they will tell you ‘going viral’. Contrary to popular belief, going viral on YouTube or any other video blogging/sharing site isn’t always a good thing. Brooke Amelia did not expect her YouTube video featuring the iPhone X to receive as many views as it did. While the views far exceeded her expectations, she wasn’t too happy about it. Why? because she received backlash rather than praise from her viewers. What’s the lesson? The Internet is a crazy place with all sorts of people so you need to be extremely carefully what you post there.
Mistakes You Make Online Can Affect People Other Than You
While the decision of what you post online lies with you, you need to keep in mind that what you choose to post to the internet can affect people other than you. This includes your near and dear ones. So, avoid getting caught up in the moment and doing something you’ll regret later. Instead, think long and hard before posting anything online. Ask yourself the following questions before posting to the internet:
- How will I feel about this a week, month or even years from now?
- How will this affect me or others now and in the future?
Train Your Children to Make the Right Choices Online
Kids and teenagers may be more tech-savvy than a middle-aged person or older but they lack the experience and level of judgement required to make sound decisions online. For this reason, training children to make the right choices online is imperative. You wouldn’t give your 16-year-old the car keys without first teaching them how to drive so how can you allow him complete access to social media without appropriate training. After all, teaching your children how to behave on social and online can be the difference between keeping your job or being fired from it.
Brooke Amelia Peterson and her father learned the hard way that misuse of the internet can result in dire consequences. If you don’t want to suffer the same fate, then always keep the above lessons in mind.
by Bobby J Davidson
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