The State Supreme Court of Washington has ruled that children have an expectation of privacy when in phone conversations. This ruling basically states that information collected while listening-in on your child’s phone conversations in in-admissible in court.
The case involved a 17-year-old boy who told his 14-year-old girlfriend that he mugged an elderly lady. The girls mother was listening on another phone line and informed the police. The 17 year old was then convicted of a felony. He had served nine months of his sentence when the judges overturned the conviction, saying: “The right to individual privacy holds fast even when the individuals are teenagers. The judge basically decided that the mother was acting as an agent of the police (the police informed her that her daughters boyfriend was trouble and that she should watch out for him.)
How dare a mother worry about her 14 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER talking to a 17 YEAR OLD BOY; who just happens to turn out to be a FELON. </sarcasm>
While this may not sound that bad at first (it doesn’t keep your from listening, just calling the cops) the ruling is ultimately destructive to the ability of parents to raise their children. If I, for example, overhear my daughter being threatened on the phone by a 35 year old boyfriend; I am unable to use the evidence from that conversation to get a restraining order if my daughter feels it was a private conversation. In addition that evidence could not be used it the court case the convict the same 35 year old “boyfriend” for rape/murder.
Ultimately, if you call my underage child (at my home) you have lost any reasonable expectation of privacy… PERIOD!
Actually, it doesn\’t prevent the mother from calling the cops – it prevents the mother from using the evidence she heard listening in on the second phone line as evidence in court.
So, she calls the cops, tells them what she\’s heard. The cops can then do a little, well, copwork (investigating!), dig up some real admissible evidence, and there\’s no problem, so long as the prosecution does not enter the eavesdropped phone conversation as evidence.