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Every parent has been there – your kid gets a tablet or phone for the holidays, and all of a sudden you can’t pry their eyes away from it. Most parents try parental blocks or limiting their screen time, encouraging them to have fun with the family instead. Pretty much anything other than using a multi-wave band jammer that completely shuts down your entire town’s internet connection.
But that’s exactly what one man did in Messanges, France, after using an illegal signal jammer to deter his child from the screen, but simultaneously nuking the internet connection of residents in a huge radius around him. He now faces a €30,000 fine and up to 6 months in jail for the blunder.
The reports came after a mysterious internet outage kept occurring between the specific hours of midnight and 3 am every night. A telephone operator received the call and sent a technician to investigate, equipped with a laboratory vehicle with a detection device that can isolate waves causing a disturbance. Unbeknownst to the father, who was surely sleeping tight knowing his child was offline, the source of the jamming was a device he had set up.
When questioned, the father admitted to using a multi-wave band jammer to deprive his kid of internet connectivity as they were "addicted" to social media. However, these jammers often have a much larger area of effect than you may expect, and it was actually affecting an area encompassing two municipalities, reports local media outlet France Bleu. They are also illegal to use in France, for obvious reasons.
The man is now under investigation and will be liable to pay for the work the National Frequency Agency carried out, alongside any criminal prosecutions put to him. Pretty tough punishment for a little too much TikTok.
[H/T: Gizmodo]
