This is like someone finding an unlocked door to the apartment building's maintenance office, taking the master keys from there, [...] Yes, in theory, it

This is like someone finding an unlocked door to the apartment building's maintenance office, taking the master keys from there, [...] Yes, in theory, it is. But in practice, it's not. Especially if you're still a kid. It's easy to miss that there's something going on in the real world when you're doing damage "just online". (I know I sound like the "You wouldn't steal a TV! Why do you download movies?" crap-ad, but I hope you get my point.) I've been a 16 year old idiot myself. After doing some stupid things to a website I was threatened with some trouble. I could avoid it by having extensive talks with the site's owner, and paying for their losses, but still, I learned my lesson: everything you do on the internet, in the virtual world, has an effect in the real word. Also it was an urgently needed wake-up call for me; I learned to think twice and since then haven't done any nasty stuff without considering its impact. So in my opinion some sort of punishment is needed for the kids to learn their lesson. The FBI or other federal institutions shouldn't be involved. Talk to them, I'll guess they're nervous as shit right now! Just bill them the time you needed to tidy up the mess they left (or a fraction thereof), and I think both sides are good.