12-year-old Sean Redden from Denton, Texas,
was in on the Internet, playing a cyber fantasy
world game. Suddenly someone came online,
asking for help. The person said she was a
Finnish business student who was locked in
her college’s computer lab. She said she was
having an asthma attack and couldn’t breathe.
Redden wasn’t sure if this was part of the
game as sometimes a few people lie on
the Net. However, as he later told the Dallas
Morning News, he decided it was, “too real to
be a joke.” So Redden called the police. With
the additional help of international phone
operators, Finnish paramedics found 20-yearold
Tara Laintinen and gave her the medical
attention she needed. Without the Internet and
the eff orts of a 12-year-old boy half a world
away, she might not have survived.