Two teenage girls had to be cautioned and chided by police at the Merrimans Mall on Mash Day after they were caught threatening each other over  comments and counter comments allegedly made on their respective Facebook profile walls. According to one of the teens, who gave her name as Shinelle, she and the other teenage girl are schoolmates  who are usually active on the popular social networking site, Facebook.
She alleged that her school friend (who was involved in the exchange of ‘explicits’ with her) went on her Facebook wall and posted derogatory comments, suggesting that she’s promiscuous, in addition to being intimately involved with a list of over two dozen school boys and male friends, all of whose names were splashed on her wall.

While denying the allegations, she said that she simply returned the favour by posting similar details on her (former) friend’s Facebook profile wall, much to the distaste of the other. This, she said, led to the outrageous exchange between the two.

When confronted with the allegations made by Shinelle, the other teen refused to speak with this reporter and had to be continuously restrained by relatives, much to the amusement of the police and other onlookers.

Both young women were then strongly upbraided by the police, and allowed to go their separate ways after their respective  adult relatives assured the cops that the issue has been resolved, and would not occur again.

The lawmen, nonetheless, documented their respective names and details of the incident for reference.

Several members of the public, including a group of tourists, subsequently commended the officers for the manner in which they handled the incident, including the restraint they had shown despite the teens’ behaviour.

In recent times, Facebook has been known to contribute to countless breakdowns in marriages, identity theft, stalking, rape, and even murders because of the volume of information it dispenses openly about the user, unless they stringently employ the security settings offered by the site.

The site, and its Twitter friend have been blamed for aiding communication during the current uprising in the Arab world.
Other countries are now examining methods aimed at curtailing Facebook’s influence on its younger population.