Now, he is on sex offender registry for 25 years, is banned from using Internet for five years and cannot visit any premises that serve alcohol

Police were forced to charge Zach with criminal sexual conduct due to his victim's age - despite girl admitting to officers she had lied about her age

Zach Anderson has been finally released from prison after serving a 90-day sentence.

However, the 19-year-old is banned from owning a smart phone or using the web for the next five years, cannot talk to people aged under 17 - and will be on the sex offender registry until 2040.

His crime?

He met a girl via an online hook-up app - who claimed she was 17 years old - and had sex with her.

As it turned out, his date was actually just 14.

Release: Zach Anderson is pictured being released from a county jail St. Joseph, Michigan, last month after serving a 90-day term for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He is joined by his parents, Les and Amanda

Strict probation terms: The 19-year-old (pictured with his parents prior to his imprisonment) is now banned from owning a smart phone or using the web for the next five years, and can't talk to people aged under 17

Now, Zach's parents, Les and Amanda Anderson, have launched a very public battle to have their son's 'cruel' punishment overturned in court - and to save other teenagers from the same fate.

'I was thinking just coming up here it’s like he shouldn’t be here,' Mr Anderson told ABC 's Nightline, referring to the moment he walked up to a county jail in St. Joseph, Michigan, to retrieve his son.

'This, you know, it shouldn’t be happening.'

Zach, who was released from the facility last month, added: 'They make me out to be a monster. I literally wouldn't have gone to her house at all [if I had known about her real age].'

Zach, from Elkhart, Indiana, was arrested after his date's worried mother called 911 when her daughter, who has epilepsy, failed to return to the family's Michigan home one night last winter.

He later admitted that he had met the unnamed girl using the app 'Hot or Not' and then traveled 20 miles to see her in Niles in December. They had consensual sex once after meeting, he said.

However, he said the girl had lied about her age on the app, pretending she was aged 17, not 14.

Due to the girl's age, officials had no choice but to arrest and charge Zach with criminal sexual conduct - despite the victim admitting to police that she had deliberately lied about her age.

Family man: Zach's parents, Les and Amanda Anderson, have launched a very public battle to have their son's 'cruel' punishment overturned in court. Above, Zach is pictured with his grandfather following his release

'Cruel punishment': Zach (pictured after his release) met the unidentified girl via the online hook-up app 'Hot or Not?'. She claimed she was 17 and the pair slept together. But as it turned out, the girl was actually only 14

The girl, now aged 15, and her mother even took the stand on Zach's behalf at his trial. The mother told the judge: 'I don’t want him to be a sex offender because he really is not and I know that there’s an age difference and I realize that (name deleted) was inappropriate that night, we didn’t know.'

She added: 'I’m very sorry and I hope you’ll really consider the fact of just dropping the case.'

Meanwhile, the victim told the court that she felt 'nothing' should happen to Zach.

However, while there is a program in Michigan that helps first-time offenders under the age of 21 stay off the sex-offender registry, the judge presiding over Zach's case chose to make a statement.

'The Internet's wonderful, thank you, Al Gore. But it also is a danger,' Berrien County District Court Judge Dennis Wiley said. 'You went online, to use a fisherman's expression, trolling for women to meet and have sex with. That seems to be part of our culture now: meet, hook up, have sex, sayonara. Totally inappropriate behavior. There is no excuse for this, whatsoever.'

Arrest: Zach (pictured in his mug shot) was imprisoned for 90 days after admitting to committing criminal sexual conduct

A distraught Zach, who had pleaded guilty to the charge, was sentenced to 90 days behind bars.

His parents immediately launched a Facebook page, called 'Justice 4 Zach Anderson, Elkhart, in a bid to have the court ruling overturned. At present, the page has nearly 650 subscribers.

The page description reads: 'Even when "the victim" (who lied about her age on social dating site) testified and pleaded for the charges to be dropped, or at least consequences be at a minimal, the judge threw the book at this 19 yr. old. He met all the qualifications for HYTA [the program for first-time offenders] which would have saved him from having to register on Sex Offender List.'

Meanwhile, the girl sought counseling to help her deal with the consequences of her lie.

Now, despite Zach's release, his freedom is severely limited by a set of probation terms.

His five-year ban from owning a phone or using the web has halted his dreams of working in the computer science field, while the only people aged under 17 he can speak to are his brothers.

He also cannot visit any premises that serves alcohol - and is subject to an 8pm curfew.

But what Zach's parents believe is his worst punishment is his name's presence on the sex offender registry for the next 25 years - alongside convicted pedophiles, rapists and other serious sex offenders.

Because of this, he cannot visit public parks, where he used to love skateboarding. He is also not able to live in his parents' house - because it is situated 800 feet away from a public boat ramp.

Therefore, his parents have had to fork out thousands of dollars for a fixer-upper home in the town.

'He's only been on earth 19 years, and his punishment is longer than he's been alive, Mr Anderson told the South Bend Tribune last month.

In his interview with Nightline, he added: 'If our son's a sex offender, there's a lot of other people on that list like him which dilutes the list, and it almost makes it meaningless.'

'Is the law supposed to cripple people, or is it supposed to correct people and rehabilitate their lives?' Mrs Anderson asked. 'This really did no justice to anybody.'

Campaign: Zach's parents (pictured) have launched a Facebook page , called 'Justice 4 Zach Anderson, Elkhart, in a bid to have their son's court ruling overturned. At present, the page has nearly 650 subscribers

Pricey: This photo, posted on the Facebook page, shows the high costs involved in Zach's court case

Zach's defense lawyers are currently working on an appeal, which they hope will get the teenager off the sex offender list and loosen some of the crippling restrictions of his probation.

The controversial case has brought attention to sex offender cases in Michigan, with many calling for more merciful sentences for young offenders.

But speaking to Nightline, Michigan state senator, Rick Jones, said Zach should have been more careful and realized that the girl didn't appear to be the 'appropriate age' before engaging in sex.

According to court papers, Zach and the young girl first started chatting on the 'Hot or Not?' app, and decided to meet up in person on December 19. Zach then drove from his home in Elkhart, Indiana across the border to nearby Niles, where he picked the girl up near her home.

He told police he believed the girl was 17, like she wrote on the site, and never questioned her in person. During their meeting, they had sex, then Zach dropped the girl back in her neighborhood.

You went online, to use a fisherman's expression, trolling for women to meet and have sex with. That seems to be part of our culture now: meet, hook up, have sex, sayonara. Totally inappropriate behavior District Court Judge Dennis Wiley

But while the pair were hooking up, the girl's mother began to worry, it is reported.

She saw her daughter leave home earlier in the evening, but didn't know where she was going and figured she would be back soon. When she didn't immediately return though, she decided to call 911, fearing that her epileptic daughter may miss a dosage of her medicine and have a fit.

By the time her daughter walked up to the house less than an hour later, officers were waiting and interviewed the girl about her absence.

Immediately after the hook-up, Zach went on vacation with his family to Florida, and didn't even know anything was wrong until the girl texted him, saying: 'Oh, we're in a lot of trouble.'

'I asked, "How old are you really?" and then she told me,' Zach said.

The issue is that in Michigan, even if Anderson had been thorough and asked to see the girl's ID - she could have given him a fake ID and he still would have been committing statutory rape.

Twenty states currently have laws which protect defendants from facing charges for such crimes if the victim lies about their age, but Michigan is one of 30 where that provision does not apply.

Officers first approached Zach in January, visiting him while he was working at an auto shop.

He then turned himself in on February 24, for a crime he didn't even know he committed.

Next week, the Andersons will return to court to appeal their son's sentence.



