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Cyber 911 Tiplines Downloading music safety
A Message from Jennifer, age 14, New Jersey
“Everyday kids are sending lots of e-mails and instant messages. Most of the time they are just to talk with your friends. Sometimes though, some kids take it too far. They send nasty messages to each other, and sometimes even threaten each other."
The parents of those kids contacted the police, who contacted the FBI in New Jersey. We spoke with the FBI agents who served the search warrant, and this is what they had to say.
"When I went through FBI training, I never thought I would be serving a search warrant on an eleven year old girl" says the FBI agent. (The rules governing interviews with undercover agents of the FBI require that we don't give out their names.) "I have been involved in investigating Internet-related crimes for several years, and am sad that so many children are abusing the Internet/ Most don't realize that sending a threat online to another child they know is a serious crime."
While nothing serious happened to that girl, after they looked into everything, the FBI has seen more and more crimes and Internet abuses being performed by kids and teens. A few years ago, the copyright laws were changed to catch kids and teens who were trading pirated software and other copyrighted computer games. Before the laws were changed, according to WiredKids' Executive Director, cyberlawyer Parry Aftab, the criminal copyright laws required that someone receive money in exchange for the pirated materials.
After the recent updates, she said, "Now children and teens can be charged with criminal copyright infringement if they receive anything of value in exchange for the sharing of the copyrighted content. For example, if one teen exchanges a pirated videogame for a pirated software application, s/he has received something of value, and can now be charged with criminal activity."
Parry explained that she doesn't think that prosecutors would be chasing kids and teens to arrest them, but recent enforcement actions by the recording industry may lead the way in charging kids and teens with copyright crimes.
We think that kids and teens need to know more about online laws, and what they can and can't do online without getting into trouble. We will be writing more about kids and cyberlaw at wiredkids.org and wiredteens.org.
So, be careful before you send a mean e-mail to someone or steal games online. You may find the FBI at your front door!”
Jennifer wrote this a few years ago, before the RIAA recent actions. Other teens are now preparing a teen-to-teen guide on downloading music. Check back at WiredKids.org and WiredSafety.org to see when it’s available.