In the audio, a man recounts that a high-ranking Sijín official, very frightened, confessed to him that there is a critical situation of child theft in Medellín, and that it is due to a “request” for white slavery or organ theft. . In another they say that there were 20 kidnapping attempts in a matter of hours.
After listening to both audios last week, Adriana Ramos panicked and chose not to send her children to the school located in Robledo for two days.
The audio stories are false, but it provoked this reaction not only in Adriana but also in several families who, after receiving these WhatsApp chains, filled the chats of family groups and schools, spreading fear.
According to the Secretary of Security, these same stories had circulated six months ago. In fact, they point out, they are the same ones that are spread cyclically, with some changes in the versions.
Tracing the origins of these chains, according to the commander of the Meval, Javier Martín, they have found that in the last five years the same stories have circulated at the national level. Even four years ago, a WhatsApp chain that talked about the false theft of a child in the town caused a tragedy, after hundreds of inhabitants in Ciudad Bolívar, Bogotá, murdered a man and lynched two others.
However, the Secretary of Security and the Police assure that although they periodically face this type of disinformation, they never take its falsity for granted. Before the appearance of these chains, assures General Martín, they have assigned intelligence and judicial police teams, hand in hand with the Prosecutor’s Office.
The truth, according to the authorities, is that today there are no complaints in the city about the kidnapping of minors outside the school or a wave of kidnappings by an organized gang.
So who is responsible for these messages? What are they looking for with this? According to Martín Gámez, the perpetrators are criminals whose purpose is to create anxiety in neighborhoods and communes and generate mistrust between citizens and authorities to undermine their legitimacy, and thus be able to maneuver with greater impunity in the territories.
For Viviana Quintero, a cybersecurity expert at Red PaPaz, the disinformation chains that circulate related to dangers to children are intended to detect vulnerable points, whether they are families or educational communities, in order to more effectively attack the well-being of children. minors.
For this reason, faced with the repeated and cyclical threat of these chains, the most efficient way to counteract it, says the expert, is to learn to verify information and know how to react to the emergence of this content.
Some elementary guidelines to know how to handle the information that reaches families through social networks is to ask the person who sent it if someone they know was the author of the information or who sent it to them.
Also warn if the information seeks to cause an emotion, such as rejection, for example, messages that emphasize the alleged ineffectiveness of the authorities in several kidnapping cases.
It is also common for them to repeatedly ask to believe in the truth of the story. This is another red flag.
Of course, although the authorities emphasize the falsity of these threats, they do reiterate the need to continue reinforcing the protection of minors, consult official sources and report any suspicious activity in educational environments to line 123. In addition, weave care networks between parents and keep channels open at all times between teachers, managers and parents to verify situations in real time.