It was only a matter of time before parents tracking what their children say on the social networking site Facebook would be sued for harassment by their children.
The Arkadelphia, Ark., woman said many of her son's postings didn't reflect well on him, so after he failed to log off the social networking site one day last month, she posted her own items on his account and changed his password to keep him from using it again.
"The things he was posting in Facebook would make any decent parent's eyes pop out and his jaw drop," Denise New said. "He had been warned before about things he had been posting."
Lane New, who lives with his grandmother, filed a complaint with prosecutors who approved a harassment charge March 26. His mother said she was doing what any good parent would do.
"Just because I don't have custody doesn't mean I don't care about him," Denise New said.
Neither New would say Wednesday which items on his Facebook site the boy had found slanderous...
In his handwritten complaint to prosecutors, Lane New wrote "Denise first hacked my Facebook and changed my password. She also changed the password to my e-mail so I could not change it. She posted things that involve slander and personal facts about my life..."
Denise New said the boy had written on his Facebook page that he had gone to Hot Springs one night and drove 95 mph on the way home because he was upset with a girl. Several other posts on his site also bothered her, but she refused to elaborate.
She said he has since opened a new Facebook account.
New should have simply taken the computer away from the boy. Allowing children to sue their parents for disciplining them is nonsense.
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