13-Year-Old Girl Arrested For Sharing Pop-Up Window That Can't Be Closed

The young girl, a school student from the city of Kariya, is thought to have created a browser exploit code as a prank. The code then creates an infinite JavaScript loop that means that it is not possible to close the window, according to Japanese news agency NHK.

Basically, some browsers allowed people caught in the loop to close the window. For once, users of Microsoft Edge and Firefox had something to be smug about.

You can bet that all three of them were ecstatic.

However, users of browsers such as Chrome were in trouble. It couldn't be closed on there, or on most mobile phone browsers either.

The police accused the girl of distributing the link to the page on which the link was stored. It was actually hosted in a few places, but the girl stands accused of publicising that fact.

Let's be clear, this sort of thing isn't new. In fact, this particular malicious link has been in circulation for the past few years. It's been circulating on quite a few internet forums for a while, basically.

The same news agency also reported that the police searched the house of a 47-year-old man as well. They are also thought to be looking at three other subjects for this bizarre 'crime'.

To be fair, Japan is famously tough on any cyber crime offences. Even when it is - with the best will in the world - a bit silly.

Obviously, this is a bit silly. Cyber crime isn't funny though.

Another 13-year-old was arrested back in 2017 for creating a mobile device virus that rendered any device it was loaded on completely useless.

They've also arrested a 17-year-old boy (kids really are getting very smart these days, aren't they?) who created a piece of malicious software that stole passwords from people's cryptocurrency wallets.

A 14-year-old boy recently was arrested for creating ransomware and then sharing the links to the malware online. Japanese police arrested him despite the fact that he never actually used the software for online attacks.

In fact, he said that he created it just because he was curious to see if he could. That's a pretty mad thought. When most of us were kids, we were interested in whether we could jump a puddle, or complete a level on a video game.

I blame the IT teachers.