Trapped Girls Call For Help On Facebook

definate writes "Two teenage girls (aged 10 and 12) found themselves trapped/lost in a stormwater drain in Adelaide, South Australia. The interesting point of this article that makes it Slashdot worthy, is that although the teenage girls had mobile phones, instead of calling for help using 000 (Australia's 911 number), they decided to notify people through Facebook. My guess is it was something along the lines of 'Jane Doe is like totally trapped in a stormwater drain, really need help, OMG!'. Luckily a young friend of the girls was online at the time and was able to call the proper authorities."

Comments

Coverage in the stormdrain?

[wjh31]

get me to australia!

Teenagers?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Two teenage girls (aged 10 and 12)..."

Teenagers just keep getting younger and younger these days.

Re:Teenagers?

[heritage727]

Well, you have to be 13 to have a Facebook account. They have Facebook accounts. So they must be 13, and hence teenagers, even if they're only 10 and 12. Seems perfectly clear to me.

Not too far-fetched

[Sefi915]

My cell phone, with Sprint as a service, gets less than crappy reception inside my office. However, I have no problems getting and sending text messages quickly.

So it's not unthinkable to imagine that they had crap for voice reception but had no issues with a web connection, especially given that they were inside a storm drain.

Oh, and when did a ten-year-old and twelve-year-old become teenagers? (The answer: "not yet".)

conservative

[TheSHAD0W]

I will admit, silly as it may sound, contacting rescuers via messaging in a non-critical emergency situation may not be a bad idea. It's more friendly battery-wise, where you may not get a chance to recharge a cell phone (in the sewers, for instance); and it can be less ambiguous than speech and more easily reviewed (although all the OMGs and missing vowels might prove problematic.

Re:Silly Silly Questions...

[Chris Mattern]

To me, teenager always meant 10 and up.

"Or, as we say around here, zeroteen!"

To me, teenager always meant 13 to 19, because, y'know, those are the numbers that actually have *teen* in them.

Re:Shame on you Facebook!

[oldspewey]

Plus there are situations where being able to text "help, I'm being held hostage" is a more viable option than making a voice call to say "help, I'm being held hostage"