Why do you think these kids would get 10-20 year sentences? Have you ever heard of a computer crime getting that high of a sentence? No one on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_convicted_computer_crim... has gotten more than 5 years, and they include people who have sold access to botnets of hundreds of thousands of machines. A quick Google search reveals someone sentenced to 20 years, but for stealing millions of credit and debit card numbers, which is actually a sizable crime with significant damage to many victims. http://www.scmagazineus.com/hacker-albert-gonzalez-receives-...
There is a story along these lines, it happened recently in New Zealand.
Some parents had an argument with their teenage son, and he went off in a huff taking the family car (technically without asking permission). His parents thought to themselves "I know, we'll teach him a lesson", so they reported the car stolen. They intended to later on drop the charges (which would have royally peeved the police, making a false charge is also a crime).
Anyway, the cops caught the kid, and because Grand Theft Auto (or whatever the NZ equivalent is) is rated as amongst the most serious crimes, he got sent off (before formal charges were laid) to a maximum security facility in the back of a paddy wagon.
He didn't even make it to the maximum security facility. One of the other prisoners being transported there in the same van killed him.
