Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

[roscoe]

Court: Mom's Eavesdropping Violated Law<br /><br />SEATTLE - In a victory for rebellious teenagers, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a mother violated Washington's privacy law by eavesdropping on her daughter's phone conversation.<br /><br />Privacy advocates hailed the ruling, but the mother was unrepentant.<br /><br />"It's ridiculous! Kids have more rights than parents these days," said mom Carmen Dixon, 47. "My daughter was out of control, and that was the only way I could get information and keep track of her. I did it all the time."<br /><br />The Supreme Court ruled that Dixon's testimony against a friend of her daughter should not have been admitted in court because it was based on the intercepted conversation. The justices unanimously ordered a new trial for Oliver Christensen, who had been convicted of second-degree robbery in part due to the mother's testimony.<br /><br />The case started with a purse-snatching four years ago that shocked the island town of Friday Harbor, population 2,000. Two young men knocked down an elderly woman, breaking her glasses, and stole her purse. Christensen, then 17, was a suspect.<br /><br />Sheriff Bill Cumming asked Dixon, whose daughter was friends with Christensen, to be alert for any possible evidence. When Christensen called the Dixon house later, Lacey Dixon, then 14, took the cordless phone into her bedroom and shut the door. The mother hit the "speakerphone" button and took notes on the conversation — in which Christensen said he knew where the purloined purse was.

 

[Link]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Chock another one up for Wa state.<br />We gots lots of stuff like that roscoe!<br /><br />A mother swats her 4 year old on her butt for being out of control (as 4 year old will try) in a supermarket and has CPS charge her with child abuse and takes the child away.<br /><br />On the lighter side we still have on the books a law, (this will date itself) that if you are driving a automobile and are at a county line, if you have criminal intention you are required to call the county Sheriff first before entering that county. Duh!

 

[BrianFD]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

As long as I pay the phone bill, I'll listen to whatever I want on my phone.<br />If the Supreme Court wants to pay the bill, then I'll relinquish my right to eavesdrop.

 

[12Footer]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Originally posted by BrianFD:<br /> As long as I pay the phone bill, I'll listen to whatever I want on my phone.<br />If the Supreme Court wants to pay the bill, then I'll relinquish my right to eavesdrop.

Exactly, Brian! All my kids had thier phone conversations recorded, after I noticed the phone became more popular than the TV!<br />It definately saved one daughter from a pregnancy, criminal record,and drug habit at age 15...As for my other three, it did not hurt to know what was going-on before it "went on".

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Yea ditto on what Brian said. I pay the phone bill and I will listen whenever I want.

 

[Mrs Soulwinner]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

I recorded several months of my son's phone conversations. He was way out of control and I wanted to know what he was up to. That's the way I found out.....I would do it again this day if I thought he was venturing back towards the direction he was going.

 

[NYMINUTE]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

My phone, my choice. Period, end of discussion.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

As I understand the ruling, legally, the court did not prevent a parent from eavesdropping. It said that prosecuters could not use information obtained in such a way to prosecute any one who was recorded without consent.

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

I too will do as I please about my phone, unless the kid wants to pay rent and pay to have a private phone line installed! <br /><br />But, really I think the media has again blown this story up. The court rulled that the moms testimony could not be used against the purse theif. It didnt say she couldnt listen to her daughters conversation.<br /><br />Ken

 

[JamesCoste]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

How do you "record" your child's phone conversation? Is there a specific device you would use without having to know they are on the phone? Or do you then pick up and hold a recorded to the phone when you notice they are on? I've got kids age 9, 5, and 4 and might need that handy-dandy tool in the near future.<br /><br />I'm not saying that I'd do it, but might have to to intervene if they stray.

 

[KennyKenCan]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

If the courts say you cannot eaves-drop on your childrens' phone calls, then let the courts take the responsibility of these teens' actions, not the parents, for with this ruling, they have taken the control out of the parents' hands!<br /><br />Just who do these judges think they are?<br /><br />Judge, Jury, and PARENT?<br /><br />All in the name of protecting you, from you!<br /><br />UNBELIEVABLE!

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

If a criminal confesses to a crime over the phone to X, and Y is listening in on the conversation, then Y cannot testify as to what they heard because they invaded their right to privacy. Because criminal and X assumed they were in a private conversation.<br /><br />This kind of ruling has been around forever, I am suprised the first court allowed it in.<br /><br />Ken

 

[NYMINUTE]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Originally posted by kenimpzoom:<br /> If a criminal confesses to a crime over the phone to X, and Y is listening in on the conversation, then Y cannot testify as to what they heard because they invaded their right to privacy. Because criminal and X assumed they were in a private conversation.<br /><br />This kind of ruling has been around forever, I am suprised the first court allowed it in.<br /><br />Ken

When my kids were teens I adopted a policy. My house , my rules. That included the phone. Unfortunatly I never listened in, but i wish I had a couple of times. Our courts need to focus on real life, not PC

 

[tcube]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Think this is ridiculous - wait 'til your kids are 18 and in college at YOUR expense. Unless they sign a waiver at the school, you have no means of knowing what grades they are making! If that don't frost ya, nothing will.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

About that time tcube.... they can put there own rear-end through school.<br /><br />I never paid for either one of mine. I helped, but that's it.

 

[arboatdr]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

When my kids geta job and can afford a phone and a house then they will have earned the right to privacy. Until that day they must be supervised even if it means listening to a phone call or following them out on a Friday night. I have a lot of faith in my kids judgement but it's because my wife and I are strict, firm and loving that I can trust them. Trust is not something they keep once they earn it, they must constantly earn it by following our rules and guidelines as long as they are under my roof. DH

 

[PatPatterson]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Originally posted by tcube:<br /> Think this is ridiculous - wait 'til your kids are 18 and in college at YOUR expense. Unless they sign a waiver at the school, you have no means of knowing what grades they are making! If that don't frost ya, nothing will.

I had heard about that, and knew it was coming. All parental financial assistance was based upon all of those waivers being signed BEFORE hand. <br />No misunderstandings later. No Waiver, No Dad's Money.<br /><br />As my dad always said,<br />"If it's something you don't want your parents to know about, you know it's wrong in the first place, and shouldn't be doing it."

 

[roscoe]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Originally posted by KaGee:<br /> As I understand the ruling, legally, the court did not prevent a parent from eavesdropping. It said that prosecuters could not use information obtained in such a way to prosecute any one who was recorded without consent.

They did go on to say that the listening to or recording of the phone call was illegal without permission of all parties, whether they are your children, or not. The court case just made this very clear, and that was included in the judge's ruling. The illegal listening is what made the testimony inadmissable.

 

[Elmer Fudge]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

Kids today are given way too much,they take too much for granted and in a lot of cases it's the fault of the parents.<br />I'm not a parent,when my wife's nepehew came to stay with us so that he can finish high school and get his GED, I laid down the law and explained to him the rules of our home, all to which he agreed to.<br />He was allowed the free uses of a car and a cell phone,also $25.00 a week to let the dogs out and feed them after school,and to pick up around the house if things were out of place, all that his aunt and myself wanted in return from him was good behavior and good grades.<br />After my wife caught him sneeking a young girl into his room at 2am one morning he lost the priviledge of the cell phone, got grounded for a month,and lost his allowance for two weeks,not to mention me reading him the riot act.<br />Two weeks prior to graduation he was caught in a lie, instead of an appology he was obnoxiously rude to his aunt in an extremely disrespectful manner, this i could not have tollerated,he therefore lost the priviledge of having a car, somehow catching the bus to school was not cool,so he started getting various friends to ferry him around, in his comings and goings our home became a place for him to shower and get some clean clothes,needless to say i told his parents to come and get him on the day he graduated,the welcome had worn out or their son would have to aquire lodgings elsewhere.

 

[Homerr]

Re: Parents not allowed to listen in on teen phone calls

How about this:<br /><br />I don't have a land-line anymore, only cell phones.<br /><br />My police scanner can pick up cell phones.<br />Am I breaking the law if I pick up my family talking?<br /><br />Any conversation broadcasted in open air isn't private... Or is it?<br /><br />H.