ABA Family Legal Guide

Computer Law

Child Protection and the Internet

Should parents also warn their kids against hacking?

Yes. It may be hard for many adults to accept, but children often have greater expertise than they do in using computers. Many children have displayed sufficient computer savvy to tap into computers that are not theirs.

In the 1990s, Boston teenagers hacked into a telephone company computer and shut it down, cutting off telephone service for about six hundred customers. The U.S. Secret Service investigated and found the culprits. The teenager who masterminded the hacking was ordered to pay the phone company $5,000, serve 250 hours of community service, surrender his computer, and serve two years' probation, during which time he was barred from using a computer with a modem.

The U.S. Justice Department urges parents and teachers to warn children that hacking is a federal offense that will be prosecuted.