[pmorici]

From the point of view of the kid's parents I'm sure they would have preferred that their son deescalated his involvement. The opposite happened when the FBI shows up and turns what was maybe a passing fad like playing goth dress up or smoking weed and turns it into a thing that pays money during a time when there aren't a ton of jobs available.

If I were the parents that's what I would take issue with. Yes, he was 23, legally an adult. But, plenty of kids are still impressionable and make stupid decisions at that age.

[treden]

It's surprising to me how many people seem to think that the FBI should be taking into consideration things that (I would think) belong to the realm of parenting. Maybe that viewpoint is a lot more normal than I personally think it should be.

I do not want the FBI wasting my tax dollars trying to parent sources (or anyone for that matter). They're a law enforcement agency, not DHHS.

The parents were paying his internet bill (and everything else), it seems safe to conclude they had considerably more influence over his life direction than the FBI.

Remember the parents gifted him a vacation to SE Asia to meet the jihadi bride. Yeah, you want your kid to have a girlfriend, but there can be limits.

The article also doesn't tell us how much he actually worked for the FBI, other than that they didn't pay him very much (implying not very much). There are a small number of anecdotes, but presumably the article's authors know more and could have told us more.. How many reports did he write? How many did he get paid for? How many times did they meet over the five years, from when he was 23 to when he was 28? Ten? Five hundred?

It does tell us that Agent Tim went to Villanova (amongst other irrelevant personal information), so I guess that means he's supposed to play a parenting role to the sources he manages.

[pmorici]

The alternative isn't expecting Agent Tim to play parent it's leaving the kid alone in the first place.