United States v. Kramer
Open-knowledge reference entry
United States v. Neil Scott Kramer, 631 F.3d 900 (8th Cir. 2011), is a court case where a Motorola RAZR cellphone was used to coerce a minor into engaging in sex with an adult. Central to the case was whether a cellphone constituted a computer device. Under United States law, specifically U.S.S.G.§ 2G1.3(b)(3), the use of computers to persuade minors for illicit ends carriers extra legal ramifications. The opinion written by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit begins by citing Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's musing that "Everything has a computer in it nowadays." Ultimately, the court found that a cell phone can be considered a computer if "the phone perform[s] arithmetic, logical, and storage functions," paving the way for harsher consequences for criminals engaging with minors over cellphones.
Background
In April, 2008, a 15-year-old female Missouri resident inadvertently sent a text message to Kramer, an adult in Louisiana. Kramer replied to the message, which began a seven-month period in which he and the female victim regularly corresponded with one another through text messaging. During their communications, the victim revealed to Kramer that she was 15 years of age.
On November 10, 2008, the victim contacted Kramer and the two arranged to meet.
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This entry incorporates text from “United States v. Kramer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.