FACEBOOK and other electronic message systems sometimes receive criticism because of their misuse.

A case in Alaska, however, points out they can be very valuable, and this instance involved a teenage girl who received a text message and is credited with probably saving a boy’s life when he had planned to kill himself.

The lifesaving effort involved not only the girl, but a school counselor and the police.

The girl, a high school freshman, initially learned via a text message that the boy, who lived in a town hundreds of miles from Anchorage, intended to commit suicide. He informed her that he was in the bathroom of his high school with a gun to his head, according to a story by Casey Grove of McClatchy Newspapers.

It was reported that the girl told her school counselor who notified police, and they contacted authorities in the boy’s hometown. One can’t help but admire the young girl for her presence of mind and the authorities for their fast action.

The girl continued her text-message conversation with the suicidal youth, a Facebook friend, as she was riding in the police officer’s vehicle,

The boy wasn’t found at his school, but officers went to his home where he was writing a suicide note and holding a handgun. He was taken to a hospital and is safe.

This isn’t the first electronic message that has proven beneficial. A spokesman for the Anchorage Police Department said it’s common for distraught or suicidal people to cry out for help, and those cries more and more are coming from text messages and social networking.

FACEBOOK was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 when he was attending Harvard. Its growth has been tremendous, and it has been expanded to other age groups.

It has a number of other competitors geared to social networking.

LIKE other electronic advances, such systems can be used for the wrong purposes as well as for good so it is important that young people be made aware of the dangers associated with such communications and be circumspect about the information they provide.