No privacy in cyberspace

Kids these days. For a generation that’s supposedly savvy with technology and comfortable with its integration into all facets of their lives, they do some pretty dumb things.

Clark County School District police arrested a 14-year-old Sierra Vista High School student on Thursday on suspicions that he might carry out some kind of violent assault at the campus. The boy didn’t have any weapons or explosives in his possession when he was taken into custody at the school. Police had no witnesses alleging the teen made threatening statements to any individual in person.

So what evidence did they have to justify his on-campus arrest and a search of his home? Iron-clad, air-tight evidence: the boy’s MySpace Web page.

On Wednesday night, the parent of another Sierra Vista student called police and alerted them to the teen’s page on the networking Web site, which contained a vague threat to blow up the school.

No names, no specifics, police Lt. Ken Young said, just “basic threats against the school in the form of using explosive devices.”

In a post-Columbine world, authorities can’t ignore such a rant, regardless of whether it was typed after a particularly hurtful or humiliating day at school.

“There’s no tolerance for it,” Lt. Young said. “It’s just like if you are at the airport and start talking about bombs and weapons.”

Now the boy faces a gross misdemeanor charge of threatening to harm pupils or staff in a public school.

Such cases, which pop up around the country every week or so, beg a question: What, exactly, are these people thinking? Do they believe that when they type threats or moronic statements or load embarrassing photos onto a Web page accessible to hundreds of millions of people, that they’re immune to potential consequences? Do they think no one’s paying attention?

And it’s not just kids engaging in such idiocy. About three months ago, criminal defense attorney Jonathan MacArthur lost his job as a substitute North Las Vegas justice of the peace when authorities found out Mr. MacArthur had listed on his MySpace page the hobbies of “breaking my foot off in a prosecutor’s ass … and improving my ability to break my foot off in a prosecutor’s ass.” Oops.

Today, it’s standard operating procedure for police investigators, school officials and company recruiters to do basic research on people by surfing the Internet. Without fail, they check MySpace. It’s free, and there’s no need for warrants or concerns about violating civil liberties.

There is no expectation of privacy on the World Wide Web. You’d think today’s kids would get that.