There's an old saying, "Children should be seen & not heard". Well the Washington State Supreme Court has affirmed that saying in a way that is not sitting well with parents.
At issue was a mother using a speakerphone to listen in to her 14 year old daughter talking to her 18 year old boyfriend on the phone. The boyfriend implicated himself in a robbery during the call. The mother took notes, went to the police & the boyfriend was charged. The Supreme Court dismissed the charges, saying it is against the law to intercept or snoop on anybody's private conversation & that even a child has privacy rights & that it is a crime for someone to do that, & that whatever is heard cannot be mentioned in court. Don't blame the court this time. They followed Washington state law, which states that
all parties on a call must know & agree to being monitored.
The Washington legislature needs to amend this law pronto. Parents are already denied the right to know if their child had an abortion or was treated for drug use or was in mental health counseling. If a parent needs to monitor a child's phone calls for illegal activity or improper activity or for whatever reason, it should be their right. Does not a parent have a right to monitor a call if the child is suspected of communicating with a pedophile? As it stands now in Washington, if a parent hears a murder confession while monitoring the child or hears a terrorist plot, the evidence will be thrown out of court because the child has a "reasonable expectation of privacy". The parent is also breaking the law & can be charged.
It should be a simple thing to change the law to read that all minors & those who communicate with minors have no expectation of privacy. It's really amazing how many jackasses are running around disguised as lawyers & legislators.
....from sea to shining sea