Oops, Dad Faces Jail After Limiting Screen Time—& Crashing Whole Town’s Internet

In a story that sounds like it’s right out of a sitcom, a dad living in the French town of Messanges accidentally crashed the town’s internet connection and cell service while simply trying to limit the amount of time his children spent online.

According to France Blue, this unfortunate parent could now face up to six months of jail time and a US$34,000 fine for causing the blackout, as jamming telecommunications frequencies is an illegal act in the country. 

His attempt at getting his kids offline was uncovered when a mobile carrier alerted France’s broadcast regulator, the Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR), to disturbance in service at the two municipalities.

Using a multi-frequency jammer, the dad thought that disrupting the home’s internet connection between midnight and 3am would force them to log off and head to bed instead of staying up on social media, as per Futurism.

However, it ended in ANFR technicians showing up at his doorstep due to the powerful jammer’s far-reaching consequences. 

Turns out, as per Gizmodo, jammers are illegal in France, and so is tinkering with towns’ telecommunications signals. 

While he didn’t mean any harm, this dad’s slipup could possibly see him land in more hot water than his children.

[via Futurism and Gizmodo, cover image via Vladimir Stanišić | Dreamstime.com]