8th grader charged with cybercrime says he only intended to annoy his teacher
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An eighth grader in Holiday, Florida, is facing a felony charge after accessing the school’s computer network and changing the background image on his teacher’s computer screen.
The 14-year-old was charged with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Other publications with stories include WTSP-TV, Patch.com and ABC Action News in a video posted by the Huffington Post. The arrest report is here (PDF).
The teen told the Tampa Bay Times that he discovered his teacher’s administrative-level password—the teacher’s last name—by watching him type it in. He had hoped to annoy his teacher by changing the background image to a visual of two men kissing, according to the middle school student.
The teen said students often used cameras on school computers to see each other.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s office said the youth had accessed a file with encrypted questions for a standardized test, but he didn’t view or tamper with the files. The teen told the Tampa Bay Times that he had accessed the computer with the encrypted files but moved on to a different computer when he discovered it didn’t have a camera.
He was also suspended from school for 10 days.
