Police are questioning four people in connection with the kidnapping of an 18-year-old Kempton Park girl, who claims to have met her abductors through popular social networking site Facebook.
Cindy Sambinda went missing on 4 January, after reportedly arranging to meet her Facebook acquaintances face-to-face.
Police are trying to establish where exactly Sambinda met her kidnappers, but she was reportedly taken to Soweto, where she was held for 10 days. Police eventually traced the young woman after she managed to SMS her mother and she was reunited with her family.
Sibenza police station commissioner superintendent Michelle Toohey says the girl has not been harmed.
Toohey has confirmed the girl met the four on Facebook, but says she can reveal little more about the case since it is still under investigation. She can also not say when, or if, they will be formally charged.
network reported in SA; however, similar cases across the world are becoming more common.
With the Internet becoming more pervasive in SA, the Film and Publications Board (FPB) says these kinds of incidents are likely to increase. The FPB runs a Web site to help parents educate themselves on the potential dangers of the Internet for children.
The FPB is also working on increasing education for both parents and children on how to be safe when using the Internet, with the board hoping to take this campaign into local schools.
“Train your child to be 'cyber smart' so that they can recognise potential dangers and know how to avoid threatening situations. Talk to your children about sexual victimisation and the use of the Internet, especially chat rooms, by paedophiles and child molesters looking for child victims.
“Encourage your children to tell you if they receive messages which make them feel uncomfortable or threatened, especially messages of a sexual nature,” the board explains.
The FPB also reminds parents that children may have access to the Internet outside of the home, from school-based computer networks to mobile phone access. The FPB has warned that Facebook may not be the only predatory ground children will need to be aware of.
In December, two men in their mid-30s were charged with the kidnapping and rape of a 14-year-old Pretoria girl, who met the men on the popular chat room application Mxit.
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