Trapped kids update Facebook status

8 September 2009 10:18 GMT / By Duncan Geere

A couple of Austrailian girls are facing an incredulous response from the web after getting trapped in a storm drain in Adelaide and updating their Facebook status to call for help, rather than ringing 000 - which is the number for the emergency services in Australia.

Reports vary as to exactly how much danger the girls were in, but the Metropolitan Fire Service in Adelaide expressed considerable concern over their actions. Glenn Benham from the MFS said: "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".

It's possible that the girls were worried that their phone batteries would run out before a call would complete, but there's nothing to suggest that from the news coverage. Perhaps they just trusted the power of their social graph over the emergency services?

Via: mashable.com

Full tags

Software, Online, Facebook, Social networking