At 5:12 pm on Sunday, Kara Alongi sent a tweet out that
said, “There is somone in my hour ecall 911”. Kara is 16 years old and lives in
Clark, NJ. While the message contained typos many people saw it and decided
that she was saying that someone was in her house. Thinking that she was in
danger, a large number of people started calling the police station in Clark.
The message went viral and people worldwide started calling the police station
as well. This caused a major problem for the local police department because
they are required to follow up on every lead regardless of how true or accurate
it is. After looking at surveillance cameras and phone records, it became clear
that Kara had faked the incident. Right after sending the text, she called for
a taxi and booked a ticket to New York City. On Tuesday, she called 911 from
the New Jersey Turnpike about one hundred miles from home. Police picked her up
and returned her home after having a standard check at the hospital. It is not
known yet why she did it or how much trouble she is going to be in, but she
possibly faces several different criminal charges.
While this situation occurred in New Jersey, the message
quickly went around the world. This incident shows the amazing powers that the
Internet and social networking can have. People, especially children, are using
social networking sites at a very high rate. Many of them over share things and
events that are going on in their life. Not thinking about the dangers or
consequences of putting personal information online for everyone to see creates
a major security concern. Kara, and the large number of young people like her,
do not fully comprehend the power that is involved when using social media and
the internet. One simple message or Tweet has the ability to travel around the
world to millions of people in a matter of seconds. It can be difficult to
comprehend how simple words on a computer screen can lead to real world issues,
but it can very easily happen. For this reason, it is important for children
and young adults worldwide to be taught how to use both the internet and social
media responsibly. In addition to just learning about how to protect their
physical and emotional safety, they also need to learn it is not just a cold
keypad and screen that they are interacting with. There are actual people on
the other side and their behaviors should be based appropriately.
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