Leader: Modern chain mail

Nov 14 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE hoax about the attempted kidnap of a three-year-old girl shows one thing – the power of text.

Thousands of people across Huddersfield quickly found out about it as the message was fired from phone to phone in the modern equivalent of a panicky chain letter.

Thankfully, in the end, it was not true at all, but it must have got some people more than a little worried. After all, every parent’s worst nightmare is to have their child snatched from their side in a busy supermarket or shopping centre.

The reasons why someone would want to start such a message remain a mystery, but it is a wicked thing to do.

The world has enough real bad news as it is without someone making up more to frighten people for no reason at all.

Treat such messages with extreme caution and, if you have any doubts, simply don’t pass them on.