Angela and Maryanne Vourlis woke up on their 20th birthday morning and logged on to Facebook expecting to read well wishes and greetings from friends but horrifically, the twins were confronted with the devastating news their brother Bobby, 17, had been killed in a triple-fatal accident.

According to the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the twins saw the RIP posts and tried to call their brother.

They then called their mother.

"I kept ringing and messaging but couldn't get on to him. So I rang Mum and said: 'Chris Naylor must have died - I just read it on Facebook. But where's Bobby? People are writing 'RIP Bobby' too.'Online social networking had delivered the mother and daughter the worst possible news. 

Heartbreakingly, a police delay in notifying the family meant Mrs Vourlis had to ring St Marys police to ask about her son's death - almost six hours after he had been killed.

While everyone has now come to expect that social networks have become the most immediate and regular ways in which many people communicate, there are some experiences that no-one ever imagined would play out through sites like Facebook.