Sydney teenager cancels Facebook party after thousands said they would attend
- The Daily Telegraph
- March 15, 2011
But Jess, a 15-year-old girl from Chatswood, New South wales, was forced to call off her birthday bash after the party's details - advertised for everyone to see on Facebook - went viral and almost 180,000 people accepted the invitation.
The Year 10 student originally intended to invite her grade only, but told her guests via the social networking site they could bring friends.
Within 24 hours, the party had more than 20,000 people listed as "attending", prompting the schoolgirl to send an unhappy message cancelling the party: "it's f***in off."
The invitation appears to have been hijacked by members of the notorious chat group Anonymous, resulting in it going viral worldwide.
Yesterday, the numbers continued to rise, with the number of guests reaching almost 150,000 about 10pm. And then the replies just kept on coming.A number of the postings on her party invitation Facebook site were using the Anonymous symbol as their own.
On her invitation, Jess said she "didn't have enough time to invite everyone" and invited others to do it on her behalf: "[It's an] open house party as long as it doesn't get out of hand."
One guest posted on the party's wall: "That Corey Worthington kid has nothing on this", referring to the 500 guests who attended a now notorious house party in Melbourne after it was advertised on Facebook.
Jess's father, who asked that his name be withheld, said the invitation was "a complete hoax". "My girl is an innocent victim," he said.
He said Jess had invited "a few friends" but did not know how to use the privacy settings on Facebook to stop strangers from viewing her party information.
"She was just anxious about whether anyone would show up to her birthday," he said.
Chatswood Inspector Peter Yeomans said police had intervened to prevent unwanted people turning up on the night.
"It is a huge number of hits and could potentially turn very serious," Insp Yeomans said.
The news came on the back of an expert's warning that children as young as seven were being cyber bullied.
A Queensland report said "delusional" parents were enabling the cyber attacks by allowing their children to create Facebook pages at prohibited ages.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/chatswood-girl-cancels-facebook-party-after-20000-said-they-would-attend/story-e6frfkwi-1226021517747#ixzz1GfxeadtB
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