Facebook & the Law...




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It is no secret that teenagers have come to rely on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to document every aspect of their lives. It is easy to get lost in the online world of social media and think that because you’ve set your profile to “private”, what you post online will have no repercussions. This blog post will outline some of the possible consequences of documenting too much of your information through social media.

It has become increasingly known that many employers do a Facebook search of their potential employees before they even have a chance to introduce themselves. In most cases, these searches will turn employers away from the candidate before even interviewing them. However, what is not as well known is the fact that universities do the same. According to a Kaplan Test Prep survey from 2011, 24% of college admission officers in the United States admitted to using social networks such as Facebook to learn more about their candidates (Schaffer and Wong). 

What is perhaps more important to know is that even if you’ve set your profile to “private”, Facebook reserves the right to “access, preserve and share information when [they] have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity” (Facebook), as outlined in their privacy policy. This means that what you post online can and will be used against you if you are suspected of committing a crime. We need only look at the recent arrest of 18-year-old Jacob Cox-Brown to realize the repercussions of some status updates: Jacob, who hit two cars while driving under the influence and fled the scene, proceeded to post about it on Facebook: “Drivin drunk... classic ;) but to whoever’s vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P” (qtd. in Gorrow). A few of his “friends” contacted the local police, who until then had no leads on the perpetrator of the hit-and-run. While the Facebook evidence was not enough to convict Jacob of drunk driving, they were able to match the car registered to Jacob’s name to the damage done at the hit-and-run scene. Consequently, Jacob was charged with “failure to perform the duties of a driver” (Gorrow).

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/01/04/teen-facebook-drunk_620x350.jpg

Another, more surprising example of Facebook information use by the government is the story of Paula Asher. Paula is an 18-year-old girl who landed in jail for refusing to take down her Facebook page after she posted prior to her court date: “My dumbass got a DUI and hit a car LOL” (qtd. in Ashe), which the judge was not very pleased with.

Facebook information is also often used local high schools when problems in a school arise. Students in Ontario who use Facebook as a means to bully students in their schools can be suspended or in some cases expelled. The Education Act states in s. 306 (1)(6) that a principal must consider suspending you if you bully someone. S. 310(1)(6) of the Education Act goes on to state that a principal must consider expelling you:
a)  if your bullying is motivated by bias (i.e. race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, disability or more) OR
b) previously have been suspended for bullying and create an unsafe risk to the safety of another student. 

Posting hurtful comments on Facebook about other students at your school qualifies as an act that will impact the school climate regardless of whether you posted these comments off school property or out of school hours. It is easy for this information to come to the attention of the school administration; your posts can be printed by any of your friends or by the person who your comments may be directed too.  Any posts on Facebook that are threatening or point to a pattern of harassment or other criminal activity can be used as evidence in court for criminal charges or civil law suits. 

As these and many other stories show, it is important to know where your information is stored, for how long, and most importantly, who can access it. As a press release from Astoria police read, “When you post [...] on Facebook, you have to figure that it is not going to stay private long” (qtd. in Gorrow).

References

Ashe, Dru. “Teenage Girl Sent to Jail After Posting About Her DUI Charge on Facebook.” Complex Tech. 20 September 2012. Web. http://www.complex.com/tech/2012/09/girl-ends-up-in-jail-over-facebook-status-of-her-dui-charge. Accessed 17 January 2013

Facebook. “Data Use Policy: Some other things you need to know.” Facebook. 11 December 2012. Web.  https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/other. Accessed 17 January 2013

Gorrow, Chelsea. “Facebook post lands Astoria man in jail.” The Daily Astorian. 4 January 2013. Web. http://www.dailyastorian.com/free/facebook-post-lands-astoria-man-in-jail/article_f7f0ddf6-55d6-11e2-b3d7-0019bb2963f4.html. Accessed 17 January 2013

This scenario was written by Naiara Toker, a volunteer on JFCY's PLE team. All legal content was reviewed by a JFCY lawyer. 

The Other Kids of 311 Jarvis

-by Niamh Harraher, Staff Lawyer and Jeffrey Rosekat, Chair of JFCY Board of Directors

The prevailing wind of federal government policy and much media discourse seems focused on presenting youth as dangerous, out of control and in need of a highly punitive justice system. David Bruser’s series on the kids of 311 Jarvis Street which ran over four days in the Toronto Star (Oct. 28-31) seems to have been blown by this wind. The articles painted a grim picture of a decaying courthouse and a system that is failing the public woefully. The portrayal was one-sided, but the sentiments expressed will undoubtedly resonate with many whose only experience with the youth criminal justice system is what they read in the newspapers. Those of us who work in the youth criminal justice system know there is a different story that needs to be told.

Mr. Bruser sat in 311 Jarvis Court for four months and during his time there saw some terrible cases of serious criminal misconduct by young people. He saw cases involving appalling violence; youth who have shown utter contempt for their fellow human beings through their actions. We learned some of the facts of those terrible cases through his articles and he reminded us that young people need to be held accountable in a meaningful way for what they have done. Serious crimes should invite serious consequences. The public needs to be kept safe.

But are those cases really representative of the vast goings on at that Court? The simple answer is that they are not. Mr. Bruser gave us his opinion on some of the things he saw during the four months he observed some of the workings of 311 Jarvis. The articles did not tell us about the far less serious crimes which represent the majority of crimes prosecuted at 311 Jarvis and the consequences to those young people involved. He did not talk about the programs that are offered often with great success to rehabilitate young offenders. He does not talk about the judges’ expertise in dealing with young people.

As any parent of a teenager can tell you, young people can be sullen and disrespectful. They do things they are supposed to and they sometimes lie. In this respect they are not unlike many adults. They are different, however, in the way they make decisions, assess risk and weigh consequences. Teenagers--almost all teenagers--make some unwise choices. Choices that if exposed to the full glare of the law could have easily resulted in criminal sanctions. Whether those choices involve, underage consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs, taking a car without permission, or getting into a fight most teenagers engage in unlawful behaviour. Few adults can truthfully say they escaped their teenage years without breaking the law in some way.

The youthful marijuana smokers or shoplifters barely get a mention in Mr. Bruser’s series. Mr. Bruser did not mention the shoplifter who writes a letter of apology to the store, completes an anti-theft program and has his charges withdrawn or the school yard brawler who sits across from the person she punched in the face in a restorative justice circle. These stories do not make for sensational headlines or melodramatic stories in the same way as committing a rape, dealing crack cocaine, or being involved in a gang might. But they are great stories all the same, and are stories that need to be told.

These are the stories of 311 Jarvis which should be told, because they are by far the majority of the youth who walk through the door. According to the federal government’s own statistics, over 71% of young people charged with criminal offences in 2009 were charged with property-related or other non-violent offences. These youth of 311 Jarvis frequently stand in front of Justices of the Peace on their first appearance with their heads bowed. They are ashamed and scared. If they giggle it is not out of defiance but from nervousness. Their families are upset, their lives are disrupted by court appearances and bail conditions. A young person who gets into a fist fight at school and is charged with assault is not allowed to return to that same school until the case is over because of the standard bail conditions. Before the Court even gets to them they have had their day-to-day lives completely changed. Many of the youth of 311 Jarvis want nothing more than to put their youthful transgressions behind them and move on. And large numbers of them do.

The majority of young people who have contact with Canada's youth courts are one-time offenders, according to a study jointly conducted by the University of Waterloo and the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics at Statistics Canada. The study traced the criminal "careers" of 59,000 young people released in 2005. The study found that the majority of these young people were referred to court on only one occasion, shattering the notion that most youth who come into contact with courts become chronic offenders.

One thing Mr. Bruser did get right is that, more often than not, the kids of 311 Jarvis come from communities that are racialized, poor and have a large police presence. They are therefore much more likely to come into contact with the police and to get caught when they offend. The kids of 311 Jarvis are not, for the most part, the kids of Forest Hill, Rosedale, Lawrence Park, Leaside or the Annex. These kids and the crimes they commit reflect the growing economic inequality of our city. Once in a while one will see a young person from the “right side of the tracks”  at 311 Jarvis--dressed in a suit and with a lawyer paid for by their parents--but this is not the norm. Children of affluence are simply not policed in the same manner, and they therefore do not end up in conflict with the law in the same way as their poorer and more heavily policed peers.

 

Whether we like it or not, the time when a young person comes into conflict with the law, whether for a serious or less serious crime, gives us an opportunity to make sure that this is the one and only time in their lives that it happens. The alternative, advocated by Mr. Bruser, is simply to lock them up and throw away the key, write them off and forget about them.  This is a very expensive and largely ineffective solution. With the rarest of exceptions, youth placed into custodial sentences will one day be back in the ranks of society with the only difference being that they are now hardened by the time they spent in custody.

Mr. Bruser’s articles also missed the fact that young people, even the ones who have transgressed in fairly significant ways, can be and are often rehabilitated with the right type of response. For instance, the story of a seventeen year old who repeatedly stole from his employer. Upon being charged with theft he was kicked out of his parents’ home and slept on his friend’s couch for a year. Between the time he was charged and the time he received his sentence he changed his life entirely. He got two new jobs, got himself into drug counselling regarding marijuana, volunteered twice a week at the hospital, maintained good attendance at school and got involved in extracurricular activities. He pleaded guilty on the basis of a joint submission between the Crown and his defense lawyer and received a conditional discharge which included terms that he continue along the path he had laid, and required that he pay restitution. A year later, he has his own apartment, is working and is about to start college.

In short, it is not uncommon for people to offend in their youth and never do it again as an adult. Many kids change. They grow up, and they learn from their mistakes.

Indisputably, some of the kids of 311 Jarvis are dangerous, embedded in a life of crime and well on their way to the adult penitentiary. Attempts to rehabilitate them are failing. These are the kids we hear about all the time. These are the kids that make great sensational stories for the media, and these are the kids that feed public outrage.

The judges, prosecutors, and defence lawyers at 311 Jarvis work very hard to make sure that kids who make mistakes both understand the serious nature of those mistakes, and get a chance to make amends and change their lives for the better. And while the culture of fear will always prefer the sensational minority to the boring minority, the fact is that 311 Jarvis and Canada’s youth criminal justice system, while undoubtedly imperfect, does work.

The Legal Rules of Youth and Work

Starting your first job?

Did you know there are laws about young people in the workforce? 

Consider these scenarios

Mandeep is 14 years old and just started a summer job working at a construction project lifting supplies.

Jillian, age 15 decides to start a part time job which requires her to work during school hours. She starts the job immediately, without letting anyone know.

Marcel, 17 is super excited to for all the tips he will make by serving at a local bar which is licensed to serve alcohol.

Are they all allowed to be employed at these jobs?

MANDEEP:

According to Construction Projects Regulation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, John cannot be employed at a construction project or be present in such a workplace while work is being performed. This is because the law says you must be at least 16 years old to work in these types of jobs. 

JILLIAN:

Jillian's employment during school hours violates the Education Act and Supervised Alternative Learning and Other Excusals from Attendance at School Regulation. These laws say that, "A child required to attend school cannot be employed during school hours. After directing an inquiry into the matter, the Provincial School Attendance Counsellor may excuse a child from attendance for various motives, including if he/she has obtained a secondary school graduation diploma or has completed a course of equivalent standing."

Parents and guardians who neglect or refuse to cause a young person to attend school can be charged and made to attend court. This does not apply if the young person is 16 or over and has withdrawn from parental control (ie left home). Thinking of skipping school to work?  You need to know that if you are under age 16 and you skip school regularly YOU can be charged with an offence and brought to court.  And your employer can also be charged if they employ you during work hours when you are under age 16. These laws have actually been changed to make the magic age 18, however, they have not yet been "proclaimed" by the government and thus the old rule of age 16 still stands. 


So, our advice: go to school during the day and work in the evenings and on the weekends!

MARCEL:

Marcel cannot be employed at a bar serving alcohol, as he is under 18. The Liquor Licence Act and Licence to Sell Liquor Regulation states that people under age 18 cannot be employed to sell or serve liquor on licensed premises. Note, however, that with few exceptions young people are not legally allowed to consume alcohol until they are age 19. So they can serve it when they are 18 but not drink it. Weird?

For the keeners who want to read more,

Ontario Ministry of Labour website:

 (http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/pubs/yw/yw_tips_employers.php)

Feeling even more keen, check out the Education Act:  http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90e02_e.htm#BK27 (especially sections 21(1), (2), 24, 30(3)

Blog post written by volunteer PLE Team Member Julia Dmitrieva and JFCY staff lawyer, with help from JFCY law student Jesse Gutman. 

Julia and fellow PLE Team Member at the JFCY office...not during school hours!

Upcoming Event: the law and youth workshop!

An upcoming full day workshop on the law and youth. The workshop will be led by lawyer Jeffery Wilson, actress Kate Trotter, and psychiatrist Clive Chamberlain. The workshop will be a meeting of youth with lawyers and judges. 

The workshop is free to youth 18 years and under. Teachers of life and law are exempted. Enrollment is limited so sign up early!

The event will take place at Flavelle House, University of Toronto, 78 Queens Park Crescent from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm on Friday, February 25, 2011. 

Pre-register at thelawandyouth.org or call 416 956 5635. Join on facebook! Also check out the website at thelawandyouth.org for more details.