Family discovers teenager’s death via Facebook

Tuesday 09 February 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Tags: Facebook, Media, Networking, Social

Sydney's Daily Telegraph yesterday reported a gruesome tale of modern life. Teenage boys being involved in fatal road traffic accidents is something we have come to expect, but their loved ones discovering their death through social media networks is not.

This is precisely what happened to twin sisters Angela and Maryanne Vourlis when they woke up on their 20th birthday. Logging onto Facebook in the hope of finding birthday wishes, the girls were confronted with messages of "RIP Bobby" and "RIP Chris" in respect of their 17-year-old brother and his friend.

After failed attempts to contact Bobby on his mobile 'phone, the sisters rang their mother. Although she had not heard from the authorities, she did know that Bobby Vourlis and Chris Naylor had been together the night before. A call to the police confirmed that the young men had indeed died in a fatal car crash, which had also claimed the life of another teenage passenger.

Peter Matelis, Bobby Vourlis' uncle, was reported by the Daily Telegraph as saying, "It's every parent's worst nightmare to lose a child in a car accident, but to have to hear it on Facebook, then have to chase up the police yourself, is just horrifying." For Sydney's police, Superintendent Ray Filewood defended the delay, explaining that police had had difficulty in confirming the boy's identity.

It seems that the immediacy of social networking, which has been one of its most attractive features to its many fans, has its downside. But perhaps the problem lies not with the technology but with the inability of its users to think about the consequences of their actions. In that respect, it's much the same problem as with teenage drivers.

Back to industry news