Technology

Okay there's a story to all of this. In 1983 when Ronald Reagan saw Wargames he was so terrified he readily signed the CFAA which made it super illegal (like 25 years in prison -- same as murder one in some states) to do hacker stuff.

Until, very recently, hacker stuff banned by the CFAA included violating the TOS of websites and social media platforms.

So if you lied about your age to make a Snapchat account, you could be in serious trouble... if a prosecutor wanted to ruin the life of a ten-year-old girl. Most prosecutors don't want to ruin the lives of ten-year-old girls.

In fact, we Americans typically commit three felonies a day, a large number of which are violations of the CFAA. They're convenient to the DoJ if you're an enemy of the state, or some official has interest in your land or your spouse, or it wants to dispose of your population demographic.

Recently a judge admitted no-one reads TOS disclosures anyway, and disobeying one shouldn't count as a crime. At the same time, if you're a hactivist or a whistle-blower you can expect no mercy from the courts. Better to flee to Russia.

That said, there was no way Zuckerberg was going to snitch on kids who wanted to social media about on his turf, and it's not his fault they're disclosing all their vitals while pretending to be a grown up.

The moral of the story is when laws serve scared presidents and big corporations instead of the public, the internet routes around it like damage, and kids get caught up in the mix.

Since we won't even give our kids medical care and school lunches, I say the US and states care less about children as they do the bad look when children get visibly hurt or killed, so the mess is way bigger than the CFAA and kids roaming the darkweb.