Recently we brought you some tips on on how to keep your child safe online. Do you let your child have a Facebook account? And if so, do you monitor how they use it? One mother in America is now the subject of legal action for allegedly hacking into her son's Facebook account – and her son is behind the action.
The New York Daily News reports that 16-year-old Lane New is suing his mother because she allegedly broke into his Facebook account and wrote libellous comments about him.
The teenager's mother, Denise New, responds that her actions were justified because she was concerned about her son's behaviour online. Mother and son live separately, with Lane residing with his grandmother. He claims that his mother hacked into his account, changed his password and posted remarks about his personal life. His mother claims that she was able to access the account after her son used it at her home and left it logged on.
She also said, in an interview with KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas: "You're within your legal rights to monitor your child and to have a conversation with your child on Facebook whether it's his account, or your account or whoever's account."
Among the things she allegedly read is that her son took a girl out one night and drove home at 95 miles per hour because he was upset with his date. Denis says: "The things he was posting in Facebook would make any decent parent's eyes pop out and his jaw drop. He had been warned before about things he had been posting. I probably made maybe three, maybe four, actual postings. The rest of it was a conversation between my son, me and his personal friends."
She says she intends to fight this case because it threatens to take away the rights of parents to monitor their kids' online activities: "I think this could be a precedent-setting moment for parents."
The Daily News and KATV report that Lane New's lawyer refused to discuss the case because it involves a minor, except to say that Denise New's actions fall under the legal definition of harassment.
What do you think? Was this mother right to take action? Is her son right to sue? Leave a comment below