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Parents can tap kids’ phones

KNOXVILLE — Heads up kids: Big Brother can’t tap your phones, but mom and dad can.

So says the state Court of Appeals in a legally groundbreaking opinion that uses a Knox County custody battle as the backdrop.

“The parties agree that this is an issue of first impression in Tennessee,” Appellate Judge Charles D. Susano Jr. wrote in a recently released opinion, meaning that this is the first case of its kind.

Since 1994, it has been a crime in Tennessee to secretly record or eavesdrop on a phone call between two unsuspecting adults.

That made tapping a cheating spouse’s phone, for instance, to garner proof of a liaison a legal no-no, punishable by jail time and civil damages.

But what if mom secretly records a chat between dad and daughter and uses it in a custody fight? Do children have a right to telephonic privacy?

Until now, the issue had never been tested. Enter Knox County parents Chris Lawrence and Leigh Ann Lawrence and their toddler daughter, then 30 months old.

While father and daughter chatted on the phone in the spring of 2007, Leigh Ann Lawrence held up a tape recorder to a phone in another room and recorded the conversation.

Read full story at the Knoxville News Sentinel.