By Robert Lemos, ZDNet News

Being computer-savvy and in high school can be asking for trouble. Teen hackers fight for understanding at H2K.

NEW YORK -- "Phearfree" thought he did the right thing.

When the high-school student wanted to print out a presentation for class on the school library's color printer, the system asked him to type a password to change the settings. On a hunch, computer-savvy teen tried a well-known default setting, one that many administrators fail to change: "PASSWORD."

It worked, and he printed his presentation. Then, in what he thought was a responsible move, the teen told the school's network administrator of the security hole.

Instead of being thanked, the network administrator reported him to school officials for hacking.

"People just presume that because you know about computers that you do illegal things," said the sandy-blond New Jersey resident during a panel discussion at the Hackers on Planet Earth 2000 conference in New York. "You get crucified, if you find a hole in their network."

Phearfree and three other teenagers -- also using their hacker handles -- told gathered attendees the problems with being a computer geek and curious in high school.

"People in charge are not able to tell the difference between the computer users who learn so they can destroy and those who are talented and curious," said Gregory B. Newby, an information and library science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the moderator of the panel.

"The (grievances) we're hearing today are the result of having fairly ignorant school administrators having to deal with technical topics," he said.

School policies draconian?

Another high-schooler, "Graphix," also complained that other students' ignorance tends to be a problem as well.

During a network outage, the teen -- unsure of why he couldn't surf the Internet -- tried checking various preferences in Netscape. A student aide saw him poking around and reported him. "He thought I was the reason the proxy server was down," said Graphix.

School administrators eventually believed his explanations, but the case could have easily gone against him, he said. The penalties would have been severe. "I could have lost all privileges to go to computer classes and to use computers."

Increasingly, the students find themselves signing Acceptable Use Policy agreements limiting their use -- or school officials would say, abuse -- of the school's computers. While Phearfree and others think the agreements are draconian, others believe that a school has a right not to have its network -- and the majority of students -- disrupted by the antics of the computer-savvy.

"You go out and destroy someone's work. What do you get from that?" asked one exasperated audience member.

Newby agreed that many high-school students don't show the responsibility they should when exploring computers. "One thing we forget is that these guys are kids," he said. "The analytical and ethical component of human nature is barely developed. You can't expect high-grade development from them."

"The key thing is to enforce responsible use, while not stifle creativity."