Article by Gerald Shaw
A woman who was held at knifepoint in Sweden was able to ask for help from her friends by updating her status on Facebook. According to reports from the newspaper The Local, a male acquaintance of the 23-year-old victim was able to enter her Gothernburg apartment and threatened her with a knife. The woman was able to connect to the Internet while the perpetrator was in her apartment and posted status updates on her Facebook page saying that she was being held against her will in her own home. Friends who were able to see her Facebook status updates called the police and asked for assistance. According to police spokesperson Thomas Fuxborg, "She apparently didn't have access to a telephone, but she was able to use a computer to send out a call for help to her Facebook friends." When the police arrived at the woman's apartment, she was already able to escape outside the house and was already for the police together with a friend. The authorities arrested the 27-year-old attacker who was then still inside the apartment. The man was charged with making unlawful threats and unlawful detention. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet with millions of members all over the world. It first started as a project by friends Mark Zuckerberg Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while they were still in college at Harvard University. The site was initially meant only for students if Harvard but soon expanded to include other universities in the Boston area such as Stanford and other Ivy League universities. The site has then grown exponentially during the past recent years to become on the biggest social networking sites in the world with an estimated 350 million users. Crimes involving knives has been increasing because of their accessibility and the number of shops selling them. Some of the most sellable knives include the custom bowie knife and the military bowie knife. People are asked to be more cautious whether in or out of their homes and not to be hesitant to ask for help whenever they need it. Though the Internet has been a notorious source for criminal activities, incidents such as this prove that the power of technology can also be a tool for crime prevention. The woman is now very thankful that she was able to think on her feet despite the imminent danger she was facing at the time.