An Arkadelphia, Arkansas teen is suing his mother for accessing his Facebook account, posting what he claims are slanderous comments, and then changing his Facebook password, effectively locking him out of his own account.
In her defense, Denise New claims that as a mother she has the right to monitor what her son is doing.
The issue arose when Denise New found that her son had left himself logged into Facebook, and read in his Facebook status update that he had been driving at 95 miles per hour because he was upset with a girl.
She then posted her own updates to her son’s Facebook page, and changed the password so that he couldn’t get back into the account.
In response, her son (of whom she does not have custody – he lives with his grandmother) has sued his mother for harassment.
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Under the Arkansas harassment statute “A person commits the offense if with purpose to harass, annoy or alarm another person without good cause, he engages in conduct or repeatedly commits acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person.”
New plans to fight the suit, saying that “You’re within your legal rights to monitor your child and to have a conversation with your child on Facebook whether it’s his account, or your account, or whoever’s account.”
Denise New claims that she has an excellent relationship with her son – somehow we think that relationship is about to become a bit more strained.
Says New, “I’m not gonna let this rest. I think this could be a precedent-setting moment for parents.”
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I believe that she could have handled this a lot better than she did.
Obviously, Ms. New has an ‘excellent relationship’ with her son…that’s why he lives with his grandmother. I would not be surprised to learn that she has harassed her son in the past.