Sarnia police are urging parents to talk with their kids about internet safety and social media in the wake of a scare at St. Patrick's High School that turned out to be unsubstantiated.
A male student from St. Pat's was investigated for commenting on a post that originated last week in the Kitchener-Waterloo area about a threatened school shooting.
Waterloo Regional Police charged a female student with uttering threats and mischief over $5,000 in connection with the original post.
Constable John Sottosanti says young children and teens need to be aware of the consequences of what they say and do on social media.
"Social media is like a tool," says Sottosanti. "You can use it like a hammer when you're building things and its use can be very positive or you can use it to do awful things like hurt somebody with it. Same with social media. You can use it to keep in contact with friends, post invitations, but when you start using it for more sinister matters, then you're looking at potential criminality and the police will get involved for that."
Constable Sottosanti says a good rule of thumb is, if you wouldn't do it in real life, don't do it on a computer.
