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Illinois prosecutors have charged a 13-year-old student with felony eavesdropping for recording his conversation with two school administrators. Should he be found guilty and sentenced, a conviction could land him a minimum of one year in prison. According to TechDirt:
The [Illinois] law forbids recordings without all parties' consent. It would seem that the school officials' refusal to discuss anything further once they were informed they were being recorded should have been enough. The conversation was ended, along with the recording. If they were concerned they said something they shouldn't have during the previous ten minutes, maybe should have restrained themselves during the argument, rather than ruin a 13-year-old's life with a bad law Illinois legislators refuse to rewrite. Given how often this law is used to protect the powerful, it's hardly surprising legislators haven't expressed a serious interest in fixing it.
Everyone from the administrators to the prosecutors and those in between had a lot of discretion available to stop the chain of events, but all chose not to stop it.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday July 02 2018, @11:56PM
The most sane law is the one where you can initiate recording as long as you inform all the participants. Further participation is considered consent to recording. This happens on telephones all day long in various industries that record customer consent in such ways.
In this kids case though, the moment he informed them, they could elect to stop speaking. What we need is a law that allows minors to record interactions with adults where that minor is detained. No exceptions beyond the parents or legal guardians.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.