Thursday, December 21, 2006

Wireless island - parents losing control over their kids’ Internet usage?

First S'porean charged with using another's wireless network


TodayOnline, 20 Dec 2006, http://www.todayonline.com/articles/161861.asp

The details surround this case is finally out.
IT WAS 2am and his mother had told him not to use the Internet.
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Determined to log on to chat with his friends, Garyl Tan Jia Luo, 17, left home with his laptop and wandered around the private estate in Nemesu Avenue where he lived in search of a wireless local area network (wLAN) he could tap on.
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Shortly after, his laptop picked up the signal of an unprotected wLAN outside a house on a neighbouring street. Tan then sat on the curb and logged on to the network.
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But a resident who was driving past spotted Tan and confronted him when the teenager tried to walk away. An argument ensued and the resident called the police.
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Tan was arrested and became the first person here to be charged with encroaching upon someone else's wireless Internet connection under the Computer Misuse Act.

Now that we are given the full story, it clearly is not a case of the networking making it's way to the user, Even if it is the case, if the user knows that he is leeching another's network, he's probably guilty as well. While the owner of the Access Point has the responsibility to secure it as well, not doing it doesn't mean one has the right to access it. After all, one can be stupid and not lock one's door but a thief cannot use that as a reason to absolve himself of any blame.

What is interesting is why the youth resorted to WIFI mooching in the first place: his mother tried to control his Internet usage. So he just left the house at 2 a.m. with his laptop to find a network. His case is probably one of Internet addiction. With Singapore going wireless and the mushrooming of many hotspots around the island, I guess more teens are going to leave their houses, armed with a PDA or laptop, when their parents try to limit their Internet usage, since they know that they can readily find a free network to use. We could almost always connect to the Internet before while outside, but this came at a cost that is on the high side for teens, now it is free or at least more affordable. Before this, I never did think about the social problems that the wireless island concept could bring or exacerbate.

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