Major Facebook Faux Pas of the Day

Teen Accidentally Invites 21,000 People To Birthday Party on Facebook

Rebecca Javeleau's 15th birthday party was supposed to be a relatively intimate affair with just 15 friends on the guest list. As it turns out, though, a full 21,000 people ended up adding their names to the list, all because of a casual Facebook faux pas.

To publicize her party, Javeleau, like most teens, created an event listing on Facebook. Instead of limiting the invitation to her close coterie of 15 friends, however, the girl from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England accidentally made the event public, thus rendering her home address and telephone number visible to the entire Facebook community. Before long, thousands of complete strangers had RSVP'd in the affirmative, and many had created separate groups to build up hype for the affair.

Facebook, meanwhile, has offered little sympathy for the girl. "When someone creates an event on Facebook it clearly says 'anyone can view and rsvp (public event),'" reads a company statement provided to the Telegraph. "If you leave this checked then it is a public event so anyone can view the content and respond."

Rebecca's mother, Tracey Livesey, has decided to cancel the October 7th birthday bash, but not before putting local police on high alert, in the event that some of the 21,000 revelers actually do show up. And, because of her social networking snafu, Rebecca won't be going near the Internet anytime soon. Livesey told the Telegraph, "[Rebecca] did not understand the privacy settings and she has lost her Internet as a result of that -- I've taken away her computer so she won't make that mistake again."