<p>I orginally posted this in High School Life but I realized that parents will probably have a lot more insight into this issue than some 15 year old high school freshmen. </p>
<p>I have a little friend who is 5 years old with cancer (I babysit for them) and her older sister who is 9 is a really sweet nice girl who frequently sends me emails. She has been taking the whole thing pretty hard understandably. Today I got a chain letter and for one reason or another decided to read it even though I never do. Well it said something about sending to 20 people and whatnot and then at the bottom it said if you delete this or dont send it to anyone you will have a brain tumor for the rest of your life. Now this really concerns me and it worries me that she thinks there is some identifiable cause to her sister’s cancer that maybe could have been preventable. What should I do? Should I call her mom and just let her know or is this totally benign?</p>
<p>I think you should contact the mom or dad and let one of them know that their 9 year old received this chain email and you’re concerned that she might not understand that the letter has nothing at all to do with her sibling’s illness. At the same time the parents explain this to the kid they can also explain that chain emails are all bogus and that one shouldn’t open them in the first place and shouldn’t forward them onwards. They also might want to review with the kid the appropriate use of a computer and email. Forwarding on an email like that could cause similar angst for the 20 people they forwarded it to.
btw - A lot of these types of emails contain computer viruses which is one reason why they should be deleted without opening or forwarding them. </p>
<p>The kid is only 9 so she shouldn’t get ‘in trouble’ over any of this - it should just be an education and open discussion.</p>