I might be old-fashioned, but I’m having difficulty understanding some actions younger generations have been taking.
It’s called swatting. It’s the act of making deceptive calls to authorities (police, school administration, government agencies) reporting a threat (shooting, bombing) to get police departments to respond to a certain area.
About a week ago there was a news report about a swatter who made calls to schools or government offices in Florida, Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Alaska. A Florida police department investigated and traced the calls and threats made online to an eleven-year-old central Virginia boy. The boy was arrested at his home and faces over 30 felony charges.
Police interviewed the parents who told them they were growing concerned about how their child was behaving, but did nothing to address the problem.
I admit, my mind was blown. First off, how in the world does a child who is eleven years old devise a plan to call in the threats? Worse, how in the world did he get the idea in his mind?
It’s been over a half-century since I was that age, but I can remember that some of my biggest concerns back then were where to ride my bicycle, what to do when I got where I was going, and then to make sure I got home when I was expected. I would have NEVER used a phone to call anyone to make a threat – it would have never crossed my mind. I probably wouldn’t have had the resources to find phone numbers for the schools and I couldn’t imagine being able to deliver a threat that would have been taken seriously enough to get SWAT teams and police officers responding to threatened locations.
I also can’t imagine that had my mother or father been concerned with my behavior they wouldn’t sit me down and get to the bottom of their concern; and then make sure my behavior changed.
Not only do you have to ask how this child got these ideas, but you also have to ask why the parents weren’t more aware of what their son was doing.
If an eleven-year-old boy is making threatening calls to cause corruption, what would he do next to get his thrills?
How did it come to happen that we are living in a world that is so incredibly screwed up? Mass shootings – stabbings – bomb threats – assassination attempts – how did we get here? Maybe a much more difficult question is, how do we get back to a better reality?
Maybe it’s time for parents who allow their children too much freedom with their screen time to get more involved and stop being afraid to take disciplinary actions if they notice something a little off.
Naturally, this was an isolated incident and the vast majority of families are very, very normal, but those who are doing bad deeds get there somehow. Most might wait until they are adults, but there are getting to be more and more people who make bad decisions and don’t seem concerned about the consequences.
Lord help us if young children making threats becomes “normal”.
Have A Good Week!
