[iDC] Tech Teen Trouble

[john sobol]

Hi

I'm working on an article about the criminalization of networked youth 
culture. Of course the most obvious example of this is the RIAA and 
file-sharing, but there are a number of cases where teens were 
basically doing what comes naturally (competing, playing games, sharing 
information or property, inventing stuff, taking pictures to send to 
friends, etc.) and ended up getting busted because of their use of 
digital technology. If anyone out there knows of any examples of this 
kind of thing I'd be very appreciative if you could send me a link or 
info offlist. To be clear, I'm less interested in people knowingly 
breaking the law (hackers, crackers, mercenary content pirates, exam 
plagiarists, etc.) than in kids who are using digital technology to do 
things that seem normal and natural to them, only to learn the hard way 
that not everybody sees things that way. For example, there was the 
teenager in the UK last fall who was fired from his job and responded 
by sending his former employer 5 million emails. Likely he and his 
friends thought this was a cool and crafty thing to do (tho admittedly 
a more mature advisor might have suggested otherwise) but I very much 
doubt whether he expected to end up on trial in a senior British court 
for his actions. (He did, and was acquitted).

I'll be happy to share my thoughts/info on this list when I've 
completed the story.

Thanks in advance,
john

--
www.johnsobol.com
bluesology • printopolis • digitopia