Kidnap fiasco at Ocean Park
A young boy becoming separated from his mother at Ocean Park for a few minutes turned into a fiasco with a viral e-mail which sent parents into a panic.
On February 21 a young expat boy was separated from his mother. He was found by staff with two Chinese women next to him.
Later the boy said to his mother: 'Ocean Park bad. Two women took me away from mum.'
The mother told her story to friends and the incident was discussed in a bar. It was picked up by a woman who e-mailed three of her friends saying the child had been abducted.
The e-mail went viral and so the hoax was born.
Ocean Park said there was no evidence to suggest any kidnapping had taken place. It seemed as if the two women were only trying to help a lost child.
The phenomenon of hoaxes is very interesting. They are modern myths that circulate in our tech-savvy world.
The internet is awash with hoaxes, from kittens born in bottles to mobile phones popping popcorn. It's often hard to separate truth from fiction.
It's all very well to suggest someone 'use their common sense', but in the case of the 'Ocean Park Abduction', it's a difficult call to make.
One way to check if what you are looking at is a hoax or not is to go to the website snopes.com. Usually they have already seen what you're looking at and have found out whether or not it's true.
