The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) says it is worrying that two girls lost last night in a stormwater drain raised the alert on a social networking site rather than ringing 000.

The 10 and 12-year-old girls updated a Facebook status to say they were lost in a drain on Honeypot Road at Hackham in Adelaide's south.

Glenn Benham from the MFS says it was fortunate a young male friend was online at the time and was able to call for help on their behalf.

"It is a worry for us because it causes a delay on us being able to rescue the girls," he said.

"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."

article here

this is what facebook does to children apparently. i weep for our future.

Wow... that's sad.... "Oh, we're trapped, what do we do?"
"I KNOW! Let's update facebook!"
"Yeah, great idea!"

Common sense is truly dying.

Sounds like something my 15 year old would do.....im lost, need help...ill get on facebook :P (ok, she is sensible enough to call 911 first, THEN get on facebook and post about it while waiting for help)
though its not funny, really. but thats how teens think these days. then again, these girls werent even teens yet. 10 year old with a cell phone? ok, thats off the point.
im glad someone was online and able to get them help!

I don't know... sometimes I only have the "tower" instead of "bars" for my signal. With only the tower, I have enough service to text, not call.

Likewise!

And wtf are 10 and 12 year olds doing on facebook?
Good god.

Eck :/. At first I didn't connect the dots, but what ARE 10 and 12 year olds doing on Facebook? What can you network then? Elementary Schools? Geeze.

That's a PARENT problem... haven't their parents instilled COMMON SENSE in these children? Apparently not.

i agree. why were they on their own in the first place?

Yeah, I've gotta say, if I was lost and had enough bars on my cell to connect to the internet, no way in HELL would I be updating FB instead of calling for help.

My children will not even have cellphones at the age, nor will they have FB pages.

If they hadn't been carrying mobiles, I wonder how much longer they'd've been down there for? Hours? Days?

Admittedly they didn't use it in the more traditional way to call for help, but I see this as more of a reason why young people out and about *should* have phones.

Yeah, I can see your point.

why were kids that young out and about on their own in the first place? they shouldn't need mobiles because they shouldn't be out without an adult.

I don't know. When i was 10 me and my friends would get on our bikes and cycle up to the big field behind our house to play games. Our parents knew where we were, we always stuck together, and we knew we weren't to go any further. I don't think that was irresponsible of my parents, but accidents do happen, and it's not impossible something could have happened to us. That was the days before mobile phones though, so we'd have been stuck until our parents came looking for us!

well i'd probably give my kids a mobile for emergencies only, but when i was young i wasn't allowed out with my mates in groups till i was 14. before then i could only go round someone's house if a parent was home and only out and about if a parent was with us.

I guess it's a cultural thing. When I was 12 I was allowed to walk to the train station with my friends, get on a train, go to a shopping centre and come home again, by myself. But I think that kids should really have some common sense and sense of responsibility by age 12.

And I used to walk to school by myself from the age of 6! Although I have to admit that these days I'd be unlikely to allow a 6 year old to do that. I'd definitely allow a 10 year old though. They need to get some independence eventually... and even teenagers do stupid things like get stuck down drains.

at about 10 i was allowed to walk my brothers to school, but we lived about three blocks from it lol. at 12 i could go by myself as i would leave later than they did. i was given a few responsibilities at 12, but my parents didn't really like us being by ourselves anywhere. i don't know if it's culture, so much as one parents level of worry over anothers, that combined with the area you live in.

True. We lived in a very safe area. I think my parents worried more about road safety and us getting hit by cars than anything else.

i think if i'd grown up in the neighbourhood i'm currently in, then my parents would've kept us attached via leashes haha.

I agree. If kids are old enough to go out and play unsupervised, I think it's sensible to give them mobile phones. but for emergencies only, not for using facebook! And even at age 10, you'd think they'd have enough sense to at least call home for help, rather than updating on Facebook!

You'd hope, wouldn't you! Still, I suppose it was better than panicking altogether and not telling anyone.

Is 000 free where this happened? In the UK everyone tells you that 999 is free, yet when I called it from my mobile it cost me over £5, which was annoying, considering it was for my psycho path flat mate who repaid us by stealing all our stuff after literally covering me in piss.

He pissed on you?? That's seriously messed up, I would have killed him.

she

Internet access and call access are actually exclusive I think. Two different signal streams. I wonder if they tried to dial 000 but were unable to get through?

i was thinking the same thing cause where i live i miss a lot of calls cause they don't come through but have no problems getting a text to send. but a call won't always go through