Rumors started toward the end of the Haj holidays that the Kingdom’s schools would not open for another week. While many people believed the rumors, others questioned their authenticity.

The problem is so poignant that sometimes government departments are forced to issue press releases denying rumors. The phenomenon is problematic because the youth are easily influenced, especially when they receive such rumors through e-mails and Facebook. People in the Kingdom are very naive and fail to investigate reality.

Rumors spread when people receive news and then forward them to friends without checking their authenticity. Some of these rumors are related to society, education and religion.

Salha Marzouq, a Saudi secondary school student, received an e-mail about the government intending to delay the start of schools by another week after the Haj holidays. “On the last day of the vacation, I received an e-mail from my friend that schools will not open for another week. In the e-mail, there was a link to confirm the fake news,” said Marzouq.

“I forwarded the e-mail to all my contacts. One of them was a journalist and she was quick to deny it through her sources at the Ministry of Education. This, however, only happened after the news had spread and many of my friends had celebrated the extra holiday. My friend checked the link and she learned that the news was at least two years old,” she added.

According to Marzouq, many of her friends were absent from school on the first day after the Haj holidays because they thought the news was correct.

Ruwida Hajjar, a Saudi Islamic culture teacher at a government school, often receives e-mails containing stories relating to Saudi society and Islamic matters.

“I noticed that many students forward huge numbers of e-mails containing fake stories and rumors without checking them first. Young people get attracted to such stories because sometimes they are related to Islam, the evil eye and urban legends,” said Hajjar.

“As an Islamic culture teacher, I can distinguish between fake and real stories, especially stories relating to Islam. I’ve tried several times to advise my students not to believe everything they receive by e-mail or text messages. They argue that they are not experienced enough to determine whether what they receive is real or fake so they send them on to their friends. They believe that their role is to spread the e-mails and wait for whatever happens,” he added.

Nuha Darwish, an Egyptian psychiatrist at a private hospital in Jeddah, said that believing everything one receives can affect one’s mind negatively.

“Recipients tend to believe fake e-mails without giving their minds the opportunity to analyze facts. This can negatively affect the mindset of the next generation,” said Darwish.

Saud Kateb, professor of mass communication and media at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, said urban legends spread due to an absence of a clear criteria about how people should behave when using modern media, such as the Internet.

“Most people use social media improperly because they don’t know the ethics relating to it. They believe that forwarding rumors through e-mails to all their contacts is a positive way of communicating, but this is not true. One of the morals that all users of modern technology should know is not to forward messages to all contacts,” said Kateb.

“Such fake e-mails and rumors are considered spam. Only experts know that these e-mails are spam. People from different cultures and age groups forward spam e-mails without being aware of their danger.

“The new generation, especially Saudis, are unaware of the ethics relating to using the Internet, mobile phones and SMS text messaging services. This is due to the absence of technology and IT lessons at most Saudi schools. The widespread use of the Internet should serve as an impetus for the Ministry of Education to begin teaching IT in schools. The new generation is learning how to use this technology randomly. This is definitely dangerous,” said Kateb.

According to Kateb, the Kingdom’s younger generation is very naive and believes everything they hear or see without verifying first.