IMHO children that age shouldn't have a mobile phone unless they can use it responsibly. They obviously cannot, so take the phone away, and the rest of the school holidays can be spent doing community service, litter picking, and hearing about those people whose lives have depended on the emergency services.
It's all relative though - I was a little cow. Never got a manhunt going for my ailing mother though. But still wouldn't hit the crap out of my kids for doing something wrong.
I don't think their parents will care tuppence, they are often the same. If I was doling out punishment I would definitely confiscate their mobile phones, ipods and computers - this action would be so devastating to them! Then I would arm them with mop and bucket and make them go and do the dirtiest community jobs, cleaning and disinfecting town rubbish bins, washing off graffiti from buildings, scraping chewing gum off the paving slabs on the pavements and cleaning public loos. After this I would make them sit for a morning listening to emergency calls coming into a switchboard to hear how distressed real people are amd make them watch casualties being brought into hospitals. Real shock treatment! but of course they will be molly coddled by the do-gooders trying to blame it on aspects of their lifestyle etc.
I know this was a really naughty thing to do, but let's face it they are ten years old. They haven't killed anybody, stolen anything or committed a violent crime, they have been totally silly and gone to far!! Some people of this thread have inferred that they should be treated like criminals, or are criminals in the making!!
What these girls did was horrible and a massive strain on emergency services resources, but at 10, i genuinely believe they'd have been unaware of the consequences of their actions.
Definitely confiscate phones and deny internet access until they can show that they are responsible enough to have them. OK, they're only kids, but they need to realise that what they did was wrong.
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