Hacker News Reader

Comment by cm2187 | Hacker News Reader

I agree that this is a bit heavy handed but I do not believe that we should advertise hacking into other people computers (nevermind how dumm is their protection) as being a venial activity. Most hackers who write spam bots, viruses, etc, wouldn't go in a street and beat up an old woman randomly. They are not really bad ass criminals. But somehow they think that it's OK to infect thousands of machines. Well it's not. They are committing crime and harm just because they can. And I think the sentiment that if a crime is committed electronically then it doesn't really matter is an attitude that we need to change.

View on HN

Let's not turn this into a discussion of something other than what it is: a harmless prank. Kids have been pranking teachers since before public education was a thing, let alone computers. I'm not saying it's a good or smart thing to do - but that's why they are kids and not adults.

Of course educators have to enforce the rules as well as their authority in the face of insubordination, - and I don't think people are arguing the kid shouldn't get in trouble.

But apologia for the felony charges is crazy, if that's sufficient grounds for a felony charge - I'd wager that a significant (double-digit) percentage of all people employed in tech would have been charged as kids.

If we were treating kids as adults from a legal point of view, all of them would have a criminal record before they are 10. Kids steal from each others, fight each other, etc. It is the role of education to precisely elevate them to the standards of our society. So I agree with you the felony charge seems overblown. Though the article says the kid is a recidivist, which may explain the legal escalation.

He didn't harm anyone. He even had opportunity to do malicious things like change grades or steal standardized tests, and did not. It was all just for kicks.

Downvote me if you will but I truly support what this kid did. Maybe I'm still immature, or maybe I see a lot of him in me, but I honestly think it's hilarious and I don't care what lessons he is or isn't learning out of this ordeal.

Well technically, if the teacher was found with pornography on his school computer and the school believed he downloaded it, he could certainly have been fired, and that may well have been the intention of the kid. I am not saying he should go to jail or anything heavy handed like that but a punishment is certainly relevant.

But in general, we are creating sociopaths if we do not set a moral barrier in hacking into other people machines.

  > he could certainly have been fired

not only fired. In Australia, teachers must be centrally registered to enter the classroom. An accusation such as this which was actually upheld would disqualify them from gaining registration across Australia, effectively nuking their career from orbit.

I assume similar registration requirements exist in the US.

I think they've actually just conflated "two men kissing" with "pornography". This is Florida, which I equate with "geriatric and bigoted".

That's a boatload of 'ifs' and 'coulds'.

So planting an obscene/pornographic image isn't malicious by your standards. Where do you draw the line? That is why rules exist for a reason.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com