UK Teen Busted for Confessing to Library Vandalism on Facebook
(NewsCore) – A British teenager was facing a jail term Friday after he was caught confessing on Facebook to flooding a library, causing £150,000 ($248,000) damage.
The 16-year-old boy — who cannot be named for legal reasons — faced Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court in southern England on Thursday and confessed to blocking sinks in the library’s bathroom, then turning on the taps, local newspaper The News reported.
The youth initially denied the charge, but changed his plea to guilty after he was confronted with a transcript of a Facebook conversation in which he told a friend he was responsible for the flooding at the library.
Asked on Facebook if he had caused the damage on Aug. 18 last year, the youth replied, “Kind of, yeah. I’ve kept it to myself, a few mates know.”
Irreplaceable books were destroyed in the flooding. The library was closed for five months while repairs were carried out, including re-carpeting, the replacement of computers and electrical work.
The teenager will return to court on May 11 for sentencing.
We talked about privacy on Facebook in class. We all agreed that once the information is put up there it is not ours anymore. We all want to believe that we have control over our accounts, however it is not the case. Whatever we publish it goes out and it can be turned against or testify against us. In this case, although, the 16 years old denied that he flooded the library, in a previous conversation he confessed he did it. My question is that if somebody does something culpable why he tells to anybody? Especially why he talks about it on a social network side?? I have to think that these teenagers are looking for attention and Facebook seems the perfect place to get it. Unfortunately, they don’t think about the legal consequences of their actions. Reading this article through another thing comes to my mind. If this boy confessed his action to one of his friend I would like to know how much responsibility a friend has to report him. What if somebody posts even something worse on Facebook? How much responsibility we, who are his or her friends, have to report that action? Do we have to report if we read something illegal? Signing up for Facebook I don’t remember I read anything regarded to legal actions.
A lot of the points you make are very true.
Usually when a child is vandalizing property he is doing it for attention and respect from a peer group which explains why his friends knew about it and why he wouldn’t talk about it when he was pressured by school officials.
One of the problems with teens on the internet is that they are not aware of the consequences with it, I do not have a problem with high school aged children on facebook but there must be some way for them to know the consequences of their actions which they do not.
Something that I found a little funny is the last part of your post, you said “Do we have to report if we read something illegal? Signing up for Facebook I don’t remember I read anything regarded to legal actions.” I know that personally I have no idea of what I was signing when I clicked yes and signed up. I was a high school senior and just like the young man in this article I had no idea what i was singing up for.
Children and parents need to work together in understanding internet privacy.