Help Identify Two Year Old Tsunami Victim Email

Summary:
Email asks recipients to help identify a small boy who was separated from his family during Asia's tsunami (Full commentary below.)



Status:
Was true, but the child has now been reunited with his family so there is no longer any need to forward the message.

Example:(Submitted, January, 2005)


Commentary:
The email and photograph included above is spreading rapidly around the world. Although the message may seem like a hoax at first glance, it does indeed contain factual information. However, there is no longer any need to forward the message on. I am very pleased to report that the little boy in the photograph has now been found by his family.

According to a USA Today article, the boy, Hannes Bergstroem , was reunited with his father after his uncle saw a photograph of him on the Internet.

"His uncle, who spotted the photo, claimed the boy Tuesday and set up the reunion with the father, Marko Karkkainen, at a hospital on the southern Thai island of Phuket where both father and son were receiving treatment."

It is wonderful that email and the Internet have helped to bring this little boy back to his family. However, emails such as this one often continue to circulate long after there is any valid reason for them to do so. This can clutter inboxes with needless information and weaken the power of future Internet based missing person campaigns.

Thus, if you receive this email, please do not forward it to others and let the sender know that the child's family has now been found.

Another example (Some arrive without the photograph):

References:
The net recovers toddler believed lost
Swedish boy is reunited with father in Thailand

Last updated: 4th June 2007
First published: January 2005

Write-up by Brett M. Christensen

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