Trapped in a drain...try Facebook for help?
Australia's firefighters are apparently a bit worried about the future of emergency services, after rescuing two girls trapped in a storm drain who turned only to Facebook to ask for help.
According to southern Australia's Metropolitan Fire Service, it received a "Triple Zero" emergency call on Sunday. (That's Australia's equivalent to 911.)
(Credit:
MFS)
The person who called said that two girls, ages 10 and 12, were trapped in a drain in Adelaide. The girls had a mobile phone with them, but opted to ask for help through their Facebook profiles, rather than dial Triple Zero.
"It is understood that friends of the girls were alerted to their predicament via a social networking website, which had been updated from a mobile telephone the girls had with them while in the drain," the MFS said in an e-mail. "It is believed the girls had been in the drain for quite some time. The sun had already set and conditions were dark."
Firefighters responded after they received the call and brought the girls to safety.
Nonetheless, firefighters weren't exactly pleased with the whole situation. Since emergency services are only available by dialing Triple Zero, the firefighters couldn't have known the girls were in the drain until someone called. The organization is even more concerned that contacting social networks, rather than dialing Triple Zero, will become a trend.
"While the MFS is pleased the situation was safely resolved, the MFS is urging all people, especially young people involved in an emergency, to always call Triple Zero for a guaranteed emergency service response," an MFS representative said in an e-mail. "Calling Triple Zero should always be the first communication people make during an emergency, as time is critical. Social networking sites rely on friends being logged on, noticing a message and taking a message seriously enough which potentially could lead to a dangerous delay."
The concern over people using social networks for help is a real one.
Last year, a father of a missing girl asked Twitter users to help him find his daughter. Meanwhile, the nonprofit Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster aims to help people find support during crises through social networks, like Facebook or Twitter. And the organization wants social-networking sites to become a first line of defense when humanitarian needs arise.
So it seems that emergency responders might need to deal with more social-networking usage going forward.
Are police officers and firefighters becoming an afterthought? Would you ping Facebook, Twitter, or your local emergency service first in a critical situation?
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Given that todays generation feels that the last generation was both smater and more ethical, it's not a stretch to think that respect for people means calling the stupid ones stupid. Love and respect are not about looking the other way when there is a problem to be solved.
However, I'm sure we can all agree regardless of intelligence of any generation, their seems to have been a lack of guidance given to these children on what to do in an emergency situation. Partially to blame for the parents not making sure they fully understand, and partially the children for not using their common sense.
Two girls stuck in a drain, probably where they were not supposed to be, most likely embarrassed by their situation, somewhat fearful of the police or fire, most likely very fearful of their parent's reaction, and they just want to get out. Who do you call? They probably wanted some comfort and they turned to their friends.
When my daughter was five she got her foot wedged between a seat back and the seat in a resturant. Somehow she got it twisted a little and it started to swell. Two paramedics, two fireman, a policeman, three resturant employees, and mom. They were ready to saw the support bracket off until mom suggested calmness, a little bit of airspace, some cooking oil, and an ice bag. Mom knows, she knows.
I can understand exactly how those two girls probably felt and I think no less of them for what they did, and neither should you.
But had something have gone wrong, calling official services first could have made a big difference. Children and teenagers should be taught, like I have been, that that's where you should always go first, before contacting family and friends.
You might would have a point if the kids had called their _parents_. They didn't. They didn't call anyone. Were they mine, I'd know a couple of little girls who wouldn't be leaving the house for _months_ and would spend that time minus cellphones and computers, because obviously they've become crutches that keep them from using their brains. You can bet mum didn't buy them those phones so they could update facebook in an emergency. Frankly, the fact that they didn't call emergency services isn't half as disturbing as them not calling their own family. I very much doubt that they were panicking.... possibly wanting a friend to help so they wouldn't get in trouble, but updating facebook from a cellphone isn't a panic reaction, given what a pain in the neck it would be. It's more of a 'oh lord, we're in trouble now!' type reaction, and until they have enough good sense that survival instincts outrank worry over getting caught, they ought not be out alone... granted, at their ages, they shouldn't be, anyway, and hopefully now their parents have realized that cellphones do not replace adult supervision.
Gawd.. people are dumb.
"-FIRST!"
"-2nd!"
"-third?"
"-lulz fo srs?"
Sounds like a good way of getting someone to contact the Emergency services to me!
Look, to you and I, in our comfy little worlds, it seems absolutely obvious that you dial 000 or 911 or whatever your local emergency number is. But for two young girls who are in a panic, utilizing the communications tool they use most often probably seemed like the logical next step. True, their parents should have ingrained within them the proper protocol, but let's not have such a malevolent attitude towards children who did the best they could in a panic-stricken situation. Have some compassion.
P.S. I love how you suggest that people in a panic take the next logical step. If you are in a panic your survival instincts kick in. Apparently updating Facebook is REALLY ingrained into these kids.
The only exapmle of a social service doing some good that I have read about is the event within the past year where someone was suicidal and actualy got help from some people (strangers?) via faceBook (? or was it myspace?) who upon reading this person's typed thoughts made the attempt to find/contact this particular person. It had a good ending. I read about it here on news.com so the article is in the database somewhere for those who want to get up to speed on it (if its accessible)
The implication though is that Facebook or twitter might need to carry some sort of emergency response functionality like cell phone carriers are required to do. it may come to that....
I don't know if any of the above applies to them, but txting does seem to have some application in emergency situation.
Cellphone batteries die, if you have enough to call 000 or 911, the technicians have the ability to triangulate your position if kids are not sure of their location. Social networks do not have this capability.
Granted in this case it appears that the girls gave location information, otherwise Emergency Services would never have gotten to them.
But there are so many cases were kids don't know their exact locations/intersection
Or maybe they werent in that big of a panic and thought it was funny, so just wrote it on facebook?
"going forward"? Is that, like, what we mean when we say "in future" (in English)?
<<Are police officers and firefighters becoming an afterthought? Would you ping Facebook, Twitter, or your local emergency service first in a critical situation?>>
You would if you'd tried dialling 000 during this year's bushfires here ... you'd look for a carrier pigeon before you'd dial 000.
- by pcastine September 14, 2009 5:29 AM PDT
- Lots of complaints about "kids too daft to use emergency services", but nobody mentions what is probably the root of the problem:
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (38 Comments)Did anyone ever teach these kids about Emergency Services telephone numbers? If parents and schools don't teach kids about 000/911/999/whatever the national emergency number is, kids aren't going to know about them, are they? Updating Facebook status may seem a lame way to ask for help, but if these kids hadn't been taught to use 000, what they did actually demonstrated a certain amount of common sense in a stress situation.
I've read five different reports on this story, and none of them has gone into this background question, so who's to know what the girls had or had not been taught? But assuming they were just stupid gits (and that, by extension, the entire generation is doomed to inanity) seems not entirely justified.