My son is a Twitter jerk?

[tillamook]

My son picked a fight with someone who acts in movies but is in no way a celebrity. The things my son said online were vile and despicable and my wife and I will take him to counseling and punish him. The actor said they had contacted the cops. Now my wife and I are confused as to what we should do. There were a few tweets back and forth between the two of them, and while both of them were beyond rude, my son instigated the "fight" but never threatened the actor. Reading online here and elsewhere I have found a mixed bag of answers. Did my son commit a crime? The actor lives in another country. Would that impact a potential lawsuit or criminal charges? It's hard to see how the latter could be filed, but what sort of lawsuit could be brought by nasty tweets? This actor picks fights with a lot of Twitter users. What is the likelihood he will use whatever resources he has to track down my family, and how would he do that? Are their laws in place that protect my family's privacy?