What's New in Civil and Criminal Law

   Parents of teenagers who frequent the internet on the social media websites need to warn their children of the potentially criminal consequences of "hacking" into other's sites, especially for the purpose of posting vulgar or obscene messages and altering another's profile.The Fifth Appellate District of the California Court of Appeals rendered a decision on July 21, 2011 which demonstrates how serious law enforcement feels about identity theft under California Penal Code Section 530.5(a) in the popular world of internet social media sites.

   In The People of the State of California vs Rolando S. [No. F061153], the court found that a minor's act of accessing another minor's email account without her consent, and as a practical joke, posting obscene messages on her "Facebook" supposedly from her to her male friends' pages (walls) was a felony which resulted in an in-custody commitment of ninety days to one year for the minor. The court upheld the judgment even though the minor defendant only passively obtained the victim's password by way of a text message sent to several people, including defendant, from another minor.

   In former cases using this Penal Code Section, "identity theft" was a crime which had to specifically involve the perpetrator's use of the victim's information 'to obtain, or attempt to obtain, credit, goods, or services' in the name of the victim without his/her consent. However, by expanding the statute to prohibit the use of another person's information 'for any unlawful purpose', the court held that libel or slander of a person on their own Facebook site constitutes 'an unlawful purpose' even though it is a civil wrong, not a crime.