Love-sick teen not convicted

For posting comments such as "I love you," "we need to be together," and "I will never stop trying to talk to you" in a 14-year-old girl's MySpace profile, an 18-year-old man was charged by New York state prosecutors with "aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child," a Wired News blog reports. But a New York City criminal court disagreed with the charge. In his ruling, Judge Michael Gerstein wrote that, "when teenagers fall in love, as song lyrics and studies show, they are more likely to exhibit almost manic behaviors, take risks, act compulsively, and sometimes pursue, with reckless abandon, the objects of their affection. While the actions of a love-struck teenager may well be foolish, reckless, or otherwise acts which might not be expected from a mature adult, they are not, without more, elevated to crimes." Internet law blogger Declan McCullagh added that the New York law also violates the First Amendment, which "protects against even annoying speech," and New York State's constitution.

Participatory justice

NPR aired a story about a shop owner whose security cam recorded a thief scooping up and making off with a couple of watches. "After filing a police report, [the retailer] handed out fliers with the suspects' pictures and posted the surveillance tape on YouTube." Whether the motive is public humiliation or catching the thief, the Internet is increasingly being used to "right" wrongs. To law enforcement, it's a little scary because when people or organizations like Perverted Justice (the group used by NBC Dateline for its "To Catch a Predator" series) take matters into their own hands online or offline, they can make it even harder to bring the perpetrator to justice. People not trained in gathering the kind of evidence that holds up in court can botch the legal process and make things much easier for the people breaking the law. Fortunately, the retailer NPR led its story with filed a police report and offered a reward with the YouTube video only for tips that he could hand over to the police. "Police caught the thief late last month after the watches were spotted in a pawn shop down the street," NPR reports.

ICACs in all 50 states

There will soon be Internet Crimes Against Children task forces in every US state, TechnologyNewsDaily.com reports. "The Department of Justice announced that 13 new state and local law enforcement agencies will receive more than $3 million" to form the task forces in Alaska, California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

Laws & child exploitation

The Vancouver Sun cites some outdated research from the US and confuses chatrooms with social-networking sites, but this about Canadian law and online child exploitation is notable: Because Canada's age of consent is 14, "under Canadian law, a 54-year-old man from Berlin can fly to Vancouver to have consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on Facebook. Chillingly, neither the young girl's parents nor the police would be able to do a thing about it," the Sun reports. It adds that "these types of cases will continue to be prevalent in Canada until Bill C-22, which raises the age of consent to 16, is passed through the Senate." Canadian police say that because of 1) current law, 2) a lack of resources for law enforcement to focus on Internet crime, and 3) "Canadian youth are among the world's most active Internet users" (80% have access at home, 50% with little or no supervision), "it's up to parents to be more vigilant."