Trapped girls updated Facebook instead of calling police

instant message on the computer than actually get out of the house and hang out with their friends.

You know...people have been blaming technology or heavy metal or Tv for ages. Every generation has something which is a convenient scapegoat.

Instant messaging, chatting online, texting, MMos ect; IS hanging out with your friends. We can complain all we want but this medium of communication is not going away. The key is to teach your children how to utlilize this medium in an intelligent and safe manner. But it's easier just to blame Facebook or "fill in the blank" technology.

As far as cell phones are concerned, sorry guys but a multi use phone IS what the vast majority of people want. And it IS where the industry is going despite some of you old timers...*grins *

reply to post by Merigold


Instant messaging, chatting online, texting, MMos ect my be a medium that is not going away... but that doesn’t make it right!!!

IN my opinion it is this addiction to junk gadgets and gizmos that is helping to destroy the planet!! How many perfectly good mobile phones are thrown away each year because a new and improved model is released with features on it that 75% of the people buying it will only use a couple of times just to show off to their friends??? How much energy and resources are wasted making hundreds of thousands of items designed to replace perfectly good functioning items??? And how much pollution does this generate???

Plus the fact that real life communities are beginning to break down partly because people are getting home, logging on, and spending time with their global network community. it’s all well and good, but if you don’t know who your real life neighbour are, it’s not gonna be much help when your being burgled in the middle of the night and "log on" and update your profile about the experience...

Now that may seem hypocritical coming from a person posting on an internet chat forum... but it’s all about balance!!! Personally, I feel that we are all over indulging in this tech boom. Like food... if you over indulge, it aint good for you!!


Plus... Less of the "old timers" thank you very much

Listen to all of you slamming these girls for their actions. You are not these girls, you cannot possibly know the exact circumstances they were under. Obviously I do not either. However I will have to assume their is a logical reason for them not calling for emergency assistance from the police.

My first logical conclusion is that they were participating in a criminal act (trespassing? possession of contraband?), and therefore did not wish to involve the authorities. Second thought, perhaps they were not breaking the law, but have a cultural mindset that has instilled fear and distrust of the authorities (i.e. gang subculture or similar).

And yes it is of course a possibility that they are simply moronic disciples of Paris Hilton. But there is no reason to immediately conclude that.

I did not read the report, as I am not concerned about the incident. My concern is the demonizing of technology (likely based on fear and paranoia of technology) due to the actions/behavior of some people.

The accusations of the girls being morons concerns me as well. Whether they are in fact morons or not I do not know. Regardless, I am sure that they are simply products of the environment surrounding them.

And I can easily understand how one could receive emergency assistance faster and more effectively by contacting friends/associates via facebook than by contacting authorities.

There are also privacy concerns for the girls. Perhaps they didn't want the world to learn of their predicament due to embarrassment or whatever reasons, if which was the plan, failed miserably.

The main point I aim to make here is that just because others do not take the actions that you would take in a similar situation does not make them morons by default.

In most circumstances, I myself would choose to resolve a situation without involving the "authorities" if there were alternative way to achieve the desired results.

reply to post by Muckster


I agree with you! but knowing this, and agreeing that it is overtop won't make it go away. It IS the way the world is going. It is the preferred medium of communication for a large part of the Western world.

As for me, I have a phone that is three years old, but to be honest, I really want an Iphone

And I'm an old timer!

Having been in a number of sewer and drainage systems throughout my life, I find it quite mind-boggling that anybody can be stupid enough to get trapped in there at all.... considering that they even had a source of light (their phones)...

No need to alert the authorities if you're just too stupid to get yourself out.

Originally posted by slimpickens93


And yes it is of course a possibility that they are simply moronic disciples of Paris Hilton. But there is no reason to immediately conclude that.

"That's Hot!"

Ok, suppose these girls are at home, and somebody in the house has a heart attack and becomes unconscious. Do you think that help would come faster if they update facebook for CPR instructions, or if they call 911?

And I can easily understand how one could receive emergency assistance faster and more effectively by contacting friends/associates via facebook than by contacting authorities.

Facebook is the modern day version of coffee clatching. If you put something on Facebook, you better be aware of the consequences of gossip! I've seen some kids near where I live put things they shouldn't be doing on Facebook, things they should be telling nobody about, and then they wonder why they get caught?

There are also privacy concerns for the girls. Perhaps they didn't want the world to learn of their predicament due to embarrassment or whatever reasons, if which was the plan, failed miserably.

LOL!!!!!!!!! Gee, do ya think?

What concerns me, is you trying to justify the idiocy of these 2 girls!

Originally posted by silent thunder
You know, there was a time when cellphones were about the quest for slimmer, smalller devices. That was a good direction to be heading in, IMHO. You see, with my wallet, keys, and so on alreay taking up too much pocket space, I really don't need a bigger cell phone to tote around.

All I want out of a cell phone is the ability to make calls and maybe some rudimentary texting. No I don't want to surf the web from it, watch TV on it, or have it cook my freaking toast n' pancakes for me. I have a computer and a camera already so I don't need that kind of feature bloat on my cellphone.

I am sure there are other people who think like this. I think there is a bigger-than-niche market for a tiny, stripped-down portable phone that doesn't contain a zillion useless features and come with a user's manual the size of a dictionary.

I have said the exact same thing. I have a camera and computer, what happened to just having a phone? Maybe, if you only make it a phone it won't break down after a year.

What?? They updated Facebook?? Those airheads, they should have realized Twitter is much more suited to use while trapped in a sewage drain than Facebook.

Maybe they really didn't think they were in that much trouble or danger...we don't know what they said, so for all we know it could've gone...


"LOL we're stuck in a drain system trying to find our way out."


Young children also have it drilled into them to never call the police unless it's an emergency, maybe they didn't feel it was. I know there'd be a big part of me saying, go on, explore, you'll find a way out in a few minutes.


I'm not saying they didn't make the wrong decision BUT, if you would actually stop to think for two seconds instead of jumping on the band wagon, you can start to understand reasons for not calling the police.


If the status updates are released THEN you can make judgements based on how panicked they are.

Knowing a lot of girls these days they were probably panicked

"OMG OMG OMG WE ARE SWIMMING IN OTHER PEOPLES FILTH OOOOMMGGG GET USSS OUTTTTTTT !

reply to post by Blanca Rose


You do realize these girls are only of the ages 10 and 12, don't you? 10 and 12 and trapped in a storm drain.

They were probably scared to death. Shame on you all for criticizing them, especially those of you calling them stupid and morons.

when I was 10 I wasn't afraid of no storm drains

I was afraid of what might be in them :O

especially with all that slimy stuff in there it was pretty scary

reply to post by silent thunder


So, if these girls had died, just how many of you ATS'ers would have nominated them for the Darwin Awards?

That's the award where people vote to give you based on how stupidly you took yourself out of the gene pool as well as a thank you for doing it to begin with.

Something really has to be said for stupidity in youth today.

I am highly surprised that this came from Australia and not America.

No, I am not saying American's are stupider than Australian's, I am however saying the chances of it having originated from Australia is a lot less than I thought it would have been because of how rugged I know they are and in my experience I have never come across a silly Australian who I would think would do that.

[edit on 8-10-2009 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

Intelligence isn't passed on through genes in my opinion...

Neither is stupidity... these are situations which just arise in a lifetime. One may be bad at something, and good at another... how does one define intelligence anyway?

And, if Darwin were around today he'd be abhorred by our changing of evolution. Through healthcare and doctors and psychiatrist and all these other proffessions, people who would have died in other circumstances now live

we are ruining ourselves by pampering ourselves.

What a waste of emergency personnel resources and taxpayer money. Let nature take care of them as it was intended to, for Christ's sake. We save far too many lives on this planet.

Originally posted by slimpickens93


You do realize these girls are only of the ages 10 and 12, don't you? 10 and 12 and trapped in a storm drain.

They were probably scared to death. Shame on you all for criticizing them, especially those of you calling them stupid and morons.

Yes, I do realize their ages. One of the first things a child should be taught is to call 911 in an emergency.

My 5 year old son called 911 when our babysitter passed out one day. He knew exactly what to do at the age of 5.

As for these girls being that age, and your assumption they were doing something illegal, where were the parents then?

This is also the fault of the parents for 2 reasons.

1) no adult supervision as to what the girls were doing

2) not teaching them what to do in an emergency

One of the quickest ways for your parents to find out what you are doing wrong is to put it on Facebook!

Also, parents should not be letting thier 10 and 12 year old daughters on Facebook to begin with!

They probably tried to send a text to 000. Then could not figure out why the police where ignoring their texts. SO they decided to put it up on Facebook. If that did not work, Twitter was next

Originally posted by Blanca Rose

Originally posted by slimpickens93


You do realize these girls are only of the ages 10 and 12, don't you? 10 and 12 and trapped in a storm drain.

They were probably scared to death. Shame on you all for criticizing them, especially those of you calling them stupid and morons.

Yes, I do realize their ages. One of the first things a child should be taught is to call 911 in an emergency.

My 5 year old son called 911 when our babysitter passed out one day. He knew exactly what to do at the age of 5.

As for these girls being that age, and your assumption they were doing something illegal, where were the parents then?

This is also the fault of the parents for 2 reasons.

1) no adult supervision as to what the girls were doing

2) not teaching them what to do in an emergency

One of the quickest ways for your parents to find out what you are doing wrong is to put it on Facebook!

Also, parents should not be letting thier 10 and 12 year old daughters on Facebook to begin with!

Oh come on now, you know as well as I that strict parenting leads to psychotic children. And I do mean absolutely PSYCHO. When you were 10-12 did your parents watch your every move? Most certainly not, and if they did then that's really unfortunate cause half the fun of being a kid is doing things you ain't sposed to be doin'...

I'm not sure why you are all taking the piss, it worked didn't it ?

Maybe the didn't want to waste the emergency services time (doubtful but hey it could happen). My first reaction would have been to call someone I know to try and get me out rather than calling emergency services tbh, depending on the well in question and stability issues etc.

With the way things are going with crooked cops running about. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone starts using the Internet to ask for help instead of calling your "friendly" neighborhood cop.