Mary McKenzie
Friend of Playgroup
- Loves: 5-a-side football, Fresh air, Dinner with friends
- Hates: Rude people, Being ill
- Inspired by:
- Nelson Mandela
- Intelligence
- Comedy
- My links:
Facebook status: HELP!
If you were trapped in a life-threatening situation; what would you do?
I read today about 2 young Australian girls who found themselves trapped in a stormwater drain on Sunday night. Rather than dialing 000 (the Australian equivalent to 999) or contacting friends or family directly; they instead chose to use their mobiles to update their Facebook status.
Luckily a friend saw the status updates and had the common sense to contact the Fire Service who swiftly rescued the 10 and 12 year olds.
It's possible that the girls did not feel in any imminent danger - or at least not enough to dial 000. But this demonstrates a worrying situation where kids feel more able to communicate via Facebook rather than other methods.
I'm not saying that social media channels are bad - just that there is a need to educate kids in when using Facebook and the like are appropriate and when they're not.
Having said that; it did work!
Call me old-fashioned but if I ever find myself in a pickle I'll be sure to call 999 before updating my Facebook status....
Posted by Mary on 09 Sep 09, at 1:17 pm
3 comments on this post
An interesting story. Made more interesting by the fact that you have to be 13 to use Facebook. It looks like the number of under-13 year olds who use the website is increasing.
As the age group who uses the internet gets wider, what happens to the rules which allow signing up to such services online.
The Microsoft adverts "I'm eight years old and I am a PC" clearly show that these kids know what they are doing, clever marketing or not!
Nice to meet you yesterday Richard! I believe it is key to keep kids and adult interaction separated in within certain social media technologies - until we have a more clever way to filter the interaction - to many people out there that will exploit the system, sadly.
Perhaps they could make a film of their story - they could call it, 'Twit and Twitter' :)