17 year old Norwegian in trouble after stealing wow accountFollow

The kid was 17, I certainly hope this won't go on any sort of permanent record. That would be overkill; children are children BECAUSE they lack full responsibility for their actions.

He should, however, serve for a year or so in some kind of social service.

You can hardly speak of criminal intent in a child; at best a lack of proper understanding. And mind - it is not just the child who's at fault; it is society as a whole that has failed to educate him/her properly.

Hence the social service, this will hopefully show the child that actions like the one he/she did will cause people <real> trouble, and hopefully learn from it.

Edited, Dec 6th 2006 8:55am by Siaon

you my friend need to understand something. What the poster below you said he's 17 not 12. He also didnt steal a pack of gum either. what he stole is/was far more valuable. And he likely knew that....on top of it all, he attempted to sell it! What this criminal did was knowingly wrong, and intended to profit from it. A 12 year old wouldn't have that concept....but this 17 year old clearly did. and quite frankly, I hope they trow the book at him.
Secondly, you are clearly misguided if you actually believe that society should "raise children" perhaps his parents are partly to blame...but certainly not society. But in the end, the only one that ultimatly should be punished it the alleged perpetraiter. the other guilty parties (parents) will be punished by that fact alone.



Edited, Dec 6th 2006 10:14am by umbopo

Well what can i say?

Do you feel sorry for the kid?

I sure as hell dont. Imagine you log on to your Character and you have spent about a year collecting nice gear and putting stuff in your bank. Along comes some Brat and loots your character in no time.... I would feel pissed!

As far as i understand yes the one who had his account stolen was pretty stupid. But come on seriously... Thats just too lame... its like saying that that old woman you robbed on the street shouldnt wear jewelry... Dont blame the Victim man. I think that kid should be punished and punished hard. We all spend a lot of time with WoW or at least i do. And not much can make my temper go ballistic, this story sure can though. Yeah... just had to vent some steam here

Isn't it obvious? He stole an account...much like stealing someone credid card (account)...its theft.
"aquiring" someones account information, is not a crime. And in itself does not prevent someone from "accessing thier characters or playtime".
The act of changing someone elses account information without thier knowlege in order to them prevent them from accessing the account, and then selling it. Theft (depending on the value of the item) is a crime punishable in the USA of up to 5 years in jail (first offence).

Edited, Dec 6th 2006 11:26am by umbopo

I know he was 17. That's still a child to me. You should be allowed to make small mistakes as a child - it's only a minor transgression.

I for one am not at all who I was at the age of 17. Putting something like that on someone's record will have a severe impact on the rest of his life. A completely unwarranted one.

Are we not a better society than that?

Crime is "1. an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited."

Theft is "1. the act of stealing; the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods or property of another; larceny."

Fraud is "1. deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage."

And the the person in question commited all of these acts.

Well I got off my lazy *** (not literally) and looked around about theft. The theft here is apparently that he stole something and thereby prevented the person from being able to use it. Just like you are saying. I wonder how they are going to assign value to the account. Amount of money payed for it so far? The value you might be able to sell it for?

Sell value or purchase value (wow cost+all monthly fees) whatever is higher would be my guess.

Even if he is convicted and gets a mark on his record it would be his juvinile (sp?) record wich would be sealed, if norway operates the general way. And when he goes to job interviews he would not have to tell them about his past infractions.

A quick scan of E-bay shows lvl 60 accounts to be valued at about $500 each.

IMO that means he stole something worth around $500. Enough for jail time? probably not. Enough to get a criminal record? yea.

Here's an idea while you're teaching children... teach them that there are real life consequences to your actions.


As for his actions alone standing as proof that he's just a child...that line of logic suggests that anyone that commits a crime is too immature to realize what he's doing. That's absurd.


Edited, Dec 6th 2006 1:06pm by Grollog

That line of logic was confined to individuals that aren't considered adults. As in, below 21.

It takes some time before an individual reaches a cognitive level that can be considered mature enough to take full responsibility for their actions.

He definitely needs to be set straight, but it should be social service (for a long time), and be shown 'the light'.

It becomes a different matter if he's a repeated offender though, but that is not the case.

Real world value? Of corse it does.
$49.00 to buy the game
$12.00 per Mo. @ 12 Mo $144.00
Playing this game for a single year is an investment of about $193.00. That is the real world invested value of ANY 1 year old world of Warcraft account.



So you believe stealing something valued over $500.00 (estimated) is silly? For someone who stole a pair of shoes I'd give them the punishment appropriate for the value of the item stolen. Which will include a "mark on their record". Stealing is a crime no matter how you look at it. If a 17 year old "child" stole your car. Stripped it down and started to sell the parts in Ebay you"d have no problem with it? You wouldn't want that "child" punished?

If a "child" grows up to believe that stealing is only bad if you get caught…then what has he really learned? How to become more clever is all.



"Minor offence" is in the eye of the beholder. He may be a minor, but what he did is serious, if his parents didn't teach him right from wrong, then shame on them too.


I agree with 1/4 of that statement "We need to teach our children"..., right from wrong, by all means necessary. Not all children learn the same way.


Doesn't really look like it.


I agree age is a poor indicator of maturity. However this person was 17 when he committed the crime. And for all we know he may have turned 18 a couple days later. His cognitive level is clearly higher than you give him credit for. He clearly planned this action from start to finish. He new exactly what he was planning on doing.
Am I judgmental? Perhaps, but I also know right from wrong even my 7 year old daughter knows better. As for his actions proving he is a child? Absolutely NOT! In fact, quite the opposite.

Siaon, this is not the right place for discussing these things, there is an out of topic forum for those kinds of issues, and IF the post has high quality, and IF the gods are feeling giddy today, you might even get away with posting it in the Asylum.
The Asylum regulars hate outsiders, so you might be rated into subdefault, but they WILL argue the issue because religious/political/ethical/legal discussions are what they live on (that and the blood of maidens with a twist of lemon).

Now, if you do decide to debate this over at the Asylum, please give us a link to your post, so that those who are interested might see it.