You Have A Right to Remain Silent – And Maybe You Should
“YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT.
ANYTHING YOU SAY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU IN A COURT OF LAW.”
You have probably heard these words hundreds of times in movies and read them in books. These words – or some version of them – are part of what we have come to know as a “Miranda Warning,” named after Miranda v. Arizona, a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case.
Although Miranda dealt with rights of someone in police custody, we ought to teach children that what they SAY online can be used against them in many ways. I recently read a blog written by a man who was a juror in a case that was decided based on all kinds of social media evidence.
Jon Mitchell, a writer for ReadWriteWeb.com, wrote about his recent jury duty experience. The jury had to decide who was telling the truth by comparing what live witnesses said in court with what they had written on MySpace, Facebook and in emails, some of which were written years before.
Mr. Mitchell’s advice was to “write like what you say will be read to a jury.” For teens and children, maybe a better test would be, “write like what you say will be read by your grandmother.”
We are living in a wired world. Boundaries between public and private lives are becoming blurred, and what children and youth “say” online can follow them for the rest of their lives.
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ha! does the Fifth amendment come to follow this at all?