More than 16,000 people have been distributing a warning about infected razor blades in a playground for a few days.
The willingness to help and warn is with all honor, but this warning is a pure construct and a combination of various warnings, some of which are years old. This is a warning accompanied by various images. These images show razor blades in a playground and a bleeding hand.
The status text of this warning is:
SPLIT!! Attention, this is the new trick at the playgrounds. They attach virus-infected razor blades to any place where their child can hurt themselves. Pay attention and share!
Sharing can save lives
First, let's do a quick fact check: The pictures are real. However, they do not come from a European playground, but from a playground in Illinois (America). The website www.fox43.com on this on March 26, 2014 . This incident actually happened and a two-year-old girl was injured by such razor blades. Here it reads:
A two-year-old was injured in the Quad Cities after razor blades were glued to playground equipment.
WQAD News 8 also reported the same incident .
Mercilessly exaggerated description
The warning now not only uses four-year-old images, but also speaks of a “new scam in playgrounds”. At least it is true that there have been (fortunately) rare and irregular discoveries of razor blades or sharp objects in playgrounds. These were published accordingly in the press. However, these incidents are so rare that they cannot be considered a new scam.
However, this warning becomes grossly wrong if you also include the story of infected blades here. None of the finds of sharp or pointed objects in playgrounds that we know of have ever mentioned infected blades (compare [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [ 5 ]). The element of the virus-infected blade may have been taken here from another classic urban legend, such as the infected needle in the fuel pump ( compare ).
Please question what you are sharing!
There is basically nothing wrong with warning messages. But please keep these down to earth and not be exaggerated or mixed with urban legends. This not only makes these warnings unbelievable, but also creates unnecessary fear.
There are currently no police warnings about an increased number of blades being found in playgrounds, and certainly no official warnings about infected blades!
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )