EDITORIAL - Stop being gullible fools

The text messages that swamped the country last Monday, warning of a catastrophe from radiation as a result of the nuclear crisis in Japan, clearly shows us two things: That there are irresponsible people with too much time on their hands, and just as many who are gullible.

The hoax, on the other hand, prompted renewed calls for stricter regulation of mobile services, with some people pushing for the registration of all sales. This, in itself, is a panic reaction that is no better than the original problem it supposedly seeks to solve.

Prior registration of all mobile phone sales will not solve the problem of prank calls or text messages for the simple reason that owners of phones from which emanate malicious messages can always throw away their phones and claim them stolen.

Besides, prior registration only works with original sales. With so many phones stolen, or sold secondhand, or even third hand, it becomes virtually impossible for anyone to trace the real culprits.

The best way to solve this problem, therefore, is for people to use common sense and to act with more tact and prudence. The problem can be stopped at the source by not passing on any information automatically without being double-checked.

As to people who have nothing better to do that make irresponsible jokes, there is nothing anyone can do to change them. They were probably born that way and will always be that way. Short of killing them, we will always be at their mercy.

But we are only as helpless against them as our gullibility. If we believe anything they tell us and pass them on without cross-checking, then we are only acting in accordance with what they think of us: Gullible fools.

But if we stop the folly at the source, meaning with the messages we get, then we can stop these jerks in their tracks. And the wonder of it all is that it does not take much doing to stop them. All it needs is a little delay until the info can be validated.