Slashdot points us to a story of a kid who is got his mom charged with harassment over his Facebook account. While the Slashdot version (and the opening of the news article) make this sound like it was filed over posts from his mom on his profile, the details suggest something quite a bit different. This isn't him being upset that his mom wrote stuff on his wall (hell, he could just block her or unfriend her), but about her apparently hacking into his account, changing his password and posting "slanderous" things as him. That seems a lot more like hacking and unauthorized access, rather than "harassment." Update: According to some, the son had left a computer where he was logged in, and the mother access his account that way.
But, alas, it appears that in Arkansas, where this is taking place, is one of those states that has passed some sort of cyberbullying/cyberharassment law that make it illegal "to harass, annoy or alarm another person without good cause." These laws tend to be way too broad, and risk criminalizing very minor activities (basic trolling, for example). So while it seems clear that, if the son's story is true, the mother clearly deserves some form of legal punishment, it's still troubling that the choice here was to use a harassment law, rather than a hacking law.
