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Comment by pbiggar | Hacker News Reader

> Must we be accountable for every little thing we do?

Of course you're right that in general people must be held accountable for their crimes. However, it's somewhat different for children, who need and deserve some protection from the stupid things they do in their youth.

I fully support the punishment of the children, and any and all legal ramifications they receive, but I don't believe they should be help accountable forever. I suspect that when these kids go for jobs in 10 years, the first result in Google will be the post with their names and their foolish youthful actions.

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Cry me a river! If the worst of the things that I did as a kid showed up in my Google results I'd still be hireable. Why? Because I was a goody two-shoes who never did anything wrong? Nope! So why, then?

Because while I was maybe mischievous, I wasn't a malicious little shit doing pointlessly antagonistic and destructive things.

I'm thinking that you don't subscribe the the idea that people can get a second chance to turn their life around (or that people can turn their life around).

No, that's not it at all.

I just think that someone so blatantly being a jackass, and being filmed in the act, deserves all the publicity that they get. I'm not suggesting we burn these kids at the stake or tattoo their crimes on their forehead. I just fail to see why anyone should bemoan their potentially besmirched reputation. Boo. Hoo.

At the very least, publicizing it before a trial taints the jury pool... I'm not one to champion the idea of trial by public opinion (because there are a number of cases where public opinion is wrong).

If that's the case, all crimes should be kept private.

I don't think anyone is advocating jail time for egging people. But you should at least get SOME negative repercussions from your behavior. A $200 fine should still enable people to turn "their lives around". They should at least be forced to clean up the mess they've made.

In olden times when we lived in small villages, yes people knew when someone was being an asshole. And they remembered. One more disincentive against bad behavior.

And people know they are dealing with a young person and the potential to grow out of it. All the more reason to make the consequences immediate and not have them learn they can treat badly without consequence.

>I don't think anyone is advocating jail time for egging people.

I am. I don't think a fine effectively gets across the point that battery and vandalism are crimes, not minor violations like jaywalking. $200 is a speeding ticket, and to some upper-middle class teenagers, little more than pocket change. Three days in jail (or juvenile detention), on the other hand is most likely a novel and frightening experience that's actually likely to discourage similar behavior in the future.

oh, ok then. Give them a little time in the corner. Even that is not life ending. Even Martha bounced back.

  > some upper-middle class teenagers, little more
  > than pocket change

I think that my parents would be considered upper-middle class and I've never thought that $200 was pocket-change.

  > Three days in jail (or juvenile detention), on
  > the other hand is most likely a novel and frightening
  > experience that's actually likely to discourage similar
  > behavior in the future.

For some. For others it might just allow them to find bad role models more effectively.

For $500 I will seed the web about your accomplishments in nursing baby kittens back to health, your support for the disabled, and how green you are in your buying goats to mow your lawn instead of a gas mower.

The part were you are an arsonist, run a medicare fraud ring, and have stolen millions from investors will be so far back in the Google results it will be like it never happened.

Wasn't there a HN post a while back about how this is actually becoming a really big business? Reverse SEO or something like that.

"the first result in Google will be the post with their names and their foolish youthful actions..."

Actually it won't be... Google works like the world does. If these kids were to do more valuable things with there time and be recognized for that, then these pages with fall in their ranking.

Perhaps, but their attempts to do valuable things will be more difficult. They'll have a very hard time beating a viral video before they apply to college, and getting into college is going to be incredibly difficult once the selection committee Googles them.

"They'll have a very hard time beating a viral video before they apply to college, and getting into college is going to be incredibly difficult once the selection committee Googles them."

Are you saying that these kids should be admitted into college over kids that don't throw rocks at people and destroy other people's property?

There are plenty of decent-quality state universities that have essentially mechanistic admissions by functions of GPA, class rank, & standardized test scores.

I think they'll learn more by being held accountable for their actions than being given a pass.

The only reason people are scrutinized right now is because it's a small number of people (relative to actual population) having embarrassing things archived online. Once everything stupid anyone anywhere does is online either they wont be able to find your sins for the sheer noise or they wont be able to find enough candidates who don't have similar/worse things.

exactly. but it will be all important to the person committing the crime at the time and hopefully that will be the lesson they need.

and perhaps it will be a lesson to parents to know what their kid is up to. Its the mom thats really complained here and again, its better to suffer the embarrassment when its about something minor

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