From the article,
Chris Boyd from FaceTime said many of the young criminal hackers were undermined by their desire to win recognition for their exploits.
In other news, small boys and teenagers turn to whatever means are available to them in an attempt to prove their manhood.
Different cultures and societies measure manhood in different ways. Traditional metrics involve women, work and provision, and killing things. Various other factors may be considered such as facial hair or other physical attributes.
Depending on the situation and metrics used, a boy can satisfy the requirements of manhood at 14 or 15. Such a man might not be the wisest or most mature man, but he’d make the cut. Regardless, 11 or 12 is not too young to desperately desire manhood, and every small boy does just that.
If youth don’t have a suitable definition of what it means to be a man, if they don’t have suitable challenges from which to learn how to be a man, and if they don’t receive recognition for their struggles and victories, what will happen?
They’ll strive for the wrong goal; they’ll follow the wrong avenues, and they’ll kill themselves (and others) trying increasingly desperate things, just to find the recognition and acclaim they need.
Sure, you can legislate teenage hackers into your prisons, but I fail to see how that solves the problem.