It does seem a bit harsh to me....
When we were kids me and my brother used to shine an old second world war signalling search light (which my grandad had nicked from the Germans) at the navy helos. We learned how to signal "hello" in Morse code and to our surprise one circled around and signalled "hello" back....
We had no intention or blinding the pilot nor did we even think of it at the time. Kids will be kids, had a copper knocked on the door and given us a bollocking, explaining how dangerous it could have been, and had my parents known then no doubt we would have stopped. Should we have been locked up and the key thrown away?