Two girls at the age of 10 and 12 got lost in a stormwater drain in South Australia yesterday. When everybody else might have called 000 (“911” in Australia), those two girls decided to seek help by posting a Facebook status update instead.
It is a worry for us because it causes a delay on us being able to rescue the girls. If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000, so the point being they could have called us directly and we could have got there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway.
– Glenn Benham, South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS)
Luckily for the girls, somebody was online and took action by calling triple zero.
I can’t help wonder, why did they do it through Facebook instead of calling for help themselves? Now that they’re safe, and thank god for that, I’m just going to think out loud here:
- Maybe they didn’t think they were in any real danger and just wanted to “show off”?
- Maybe they didn’t have enough confidence in their emergency system or thought they would not believe them.
- Maybe they had WiFi coverage but no cell coverage (after all, it was in a stormwater drain… how good can coverage be?)
I also can’t help to wonder, how could they even have a Facebook account when Facebook does not allow children under the age of 13 to register for an account?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
– Homer Simpson
What do you think happened and why did they use Facebook? And how long time will see Facebook ads going “Facebook – we save lives!”
I read this earlier today and was wondering the same thing, why would they update their Facebook instead of calling for help? I could understand if they didn’t have an option to call, and the last option was Facebook.
.-= Jason´s last blog ..Addicted to Internet =-.
I guess they thought that friends are more reliable than policemen? ^^
.-= Michael Aulia´s last blog ..How to submit blog posts from WordPress to Facebook automatically =-.
Surely they weren’t really scared and were just showing off for their friends? Or yeah, guess it may be that there was good WiFi coverage but no cell. I’ll bet their parents are getting some answers right about now! 🙂
.-= Christie´s last blog ..Gut feelings =-.
Yeah I read this on the news today and it is quite disturbing.. they should have called 000 instead (emergency number)
.-= Michael Aulia´s last blog ..How to submit blog posts from WordPress to Facebook automatically =-.
I guess they were scared so they couldn’t think of calling 000.
Illustrates the impact Technology (Facebook) is having on the younger generation, and how much it means to them in the line of Emergency.
.-= Ana´s last blog ..Framed Beauties =-.