Teen Convicted For Sending Facebook Friend Request

Over the past few months, Facebook has either been the pointed cause for murderous acts of violence being committed, or it has been on the other side, helping criminals be served to justice. Now Facebook finds themselves in the middle of yet another case.

A teen was recently convicted for sending a Facebook friend request. Sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? Before you hesitate on sending another friend request, one should know that the teen had a restraining order prior to his Facebook request.

According to Sweden’s The Local, a Swedish teen was arrested after he tried to friend a person that had already filed a restraining order against him. That move is probably a big fat no no at the top of every Facebook social etiquette lists.

The 18-year-old male was seen at the Gotland District Court before he was convicted for sending a Facebook friend request, as that action went against the restraining order put out against him.

The Baltic island of Gotland decided that the friend request did indeed violate the restraining order that the other party had taken out, and the teen was given a suspended sentence for the friend request, and fined for a month’s pay.

It should be noted that the Facebook request wasn’t the lone action that the defender took. The unidentified 18-year-old also bumped into the person at a local market. The local reports don’t address whether or not the encounter was by accident or deliberate, but either way he paid the price.

Of course this isn’t the first time Facebook has been at the center of someone’s arrest. In 2007, Dillon Osborn was told to stay away from estranged wife, Claire Tarbox, but instead used Facebook to send a friend request This simple click of a button landed the man in jail for seven days.

Do you think Facebook actions should be taken into consideration?

[Image credit: Arka38 / Shutterstock]