Teenager's alarming post in an online community
- Kind
- Practical scenario
Prompt
You are a volunteer moderator for an online community of about 3,000 people who play the same video game. For a year, you have chatted almost daily with a regular member who goes by "Kestrel." You know only that he is 16 and lives in a city about two hours from you. At 2 a.m., he posts in a public channel that he is "done with everything" and that nobody would notice if he disappeared, then goes offline. Some members reply with jokes, and others start messaging you to ask what to do. The platform lets moderators file an emergency report, which can lead to police being sent to the account holder's address. What would you do?
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After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Empathy and compassion
- Communication
- Ethical reasoning
How to approach this question
This MMI station tests whether you'll act quickly when a teenager may be at risk of harming himself, even though you know little about him and are only an online moderator. Name the urgency first: a post like this at 2 a.m. deserves to be treated as serious. Consider the steps open to you, such as messaging him directly, filing the emergency report, and stopping the jokes in the public channel. Weigh the risk of overreacting, including police arriving at his home, against the risk of doing nothing. Make a clear decision, and explain why safety comes first in this mental health crisis. When a follow-up has him pushing back against outside help, think about how to keep his trust while staying honest about your concern and the limits of what you can promise.
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