EDITORIAL: Be careful not to invite the world to your bash
An Aberdeen neighbourhood learned on the weekend why it’s never a good idea to post party invitations online.
A teenage girl had used Facebook to invite 20 friends to a Halloween party on the weekend — only to have the invitation and her address spread across social-media sites like a partying virus.
Kamloops RCMP had to intervene and quell the celebrations before they began in earnest when up to 200 people converged on the street in front of the girl’s home.
Even so, Mounties say the house sustained some damage.
Imagine how much mayhem would have ensued had upwards of 800 people arrived, as was a possibility, according to police?
Kamloops RCMP say they spoke the girl’s parents a day before the party, after police learned of the party address being spread online, but the gathering went ahead, with a bouncer posted at the door.
This time, a Kamloops home and neighbourhood was lucky.
All one needs to do is search the Internet for untold tales of homes being trashed and people being injured because too many partiers had converged at an address advertised online.
It only takes one post on Facebook or Twitter — be it a public or private message — to turn a planned small gathering into an apocalyptic mess.
Young people need to be reminded that nothing — absolutely nothing — online is completely private.
More importantly, parents and guardians need to hammer home that message by keeping tabs on what their kids are doing online — and, to take appropriate action when informed that plans have become uncontrollable.
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