While parents know all too well that they can take control over their kids' devices when their kids are living with them, in a shared custody situation, it seems as though things get a little more thorny.
A Dallas judge found Ronald Jackson not guilty for theft, a charge that was filed after he took his daughter's iPhone 4s, which was bought by his ex-partner, Michelle Steppe.
"I was being a parent. You know, a child does something wrong, you teach them what's right," said Jackson in an interview with CBS-DFW. "You tell them what they did wrong and you give them a punishment to show that they shouldn't be doing that."
The phone was reportedly taken after a rude message, and Jackson refused to give it back. According to the judge, there simply wasn't enough evidence to pursue the case.
Of course, Steppe doesn't seem to agree with the ruling, and while she accepts that Jackson could take the phone while his daughter was visiting him, she argues that after their daughter left his custody, the phone should no longer have been in his control, even if the goal was to teach the child a lesson in phone etiquette.
