All credit card fraud is not created equal. He didn't steal any physical goods, nor did he steal anyone's credit card. He stole some hours of internet connection, which probably didn't cost the ISP that much. Not saying it is totally fine, but it really isn't that bad.

If we’re talking about the AOHell era of the mid 90s then I have anecdotal evidence that the majority of kids I knew were committing some kind of wire fraud in exchange for internet access!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOHell

Credit card fraud was really common in the 80 among "hacker" types.

I knew of several in Lake Tahoe that were high-school kids at the time in the late 80s - someohow managed to get credit cards and would order deliveries to "vacation homes" in lake tahoe where they knew the owners lived in the bay area and wouldnt be at the house - and would have things dropped off to the vacant houses to go get them.

Also, in 1980 - we had a payphone inside our home in Tahoe. I didnt know this was an odd thing to have until much later.

Always-online teenagers are a different demographic than your "average" teenager.

the highs of an exploit working or a bypass make drugs look like candy.

You'd be surprised..

Said the one who clearly missed out....

While in general I'm tempted to agree with you, if anyone deserves it, it's probably telcos anyway.

Not for lack of trying.

Here’s your merit badge for pedantry