Claim: Sixteen girls were impregnated after a boy ejaculated in a swimming pool.

FALSE

Example: [Collected via Email, February 2016]

Can you check out the story about 16 girls getting pregnant in Florida because a boy accidentally ejaculated in a swimming pool? I saw it on facebook.

Origin:In February 2016, several fake news web sites published fictitious articles claiming that sixteen girls had become pregnant after a boy accidentally ejaculated in a swimming pool:

16 young teenage girls between the age of 13 and 17 years of age have become pregnant after a pool party went terribly wrong, reports the Tallahassee Herald this morning.

A simple weekend pool party turned to tragedy when one of the young men (Tommy Coulter) attending the birthday celebration ejaculated in the pool without warning the house guests, accidentally ending up impregnating half of the girls present at the celebration.

“I’m glad I didn’t have my swimsuit that day,” remembers Daliah Jennings, present during the celebration. “It was a surprise party to celebrate my 15th birthday, let’s just say that a baby in my womb is the kind of present I’m glad I didn’t get” she acknowledges, visibly relieved of not getting pregnant.

Setting aside the obvious physical improbability of this story (and the idea that a boy would “warn” people that he is about to ejaculate into a swimming pool), this story is completely false, and originated from a site that specializes in clickbait and fake news stories.

This particular fake news item originated on 26 January 2016, when it was posted by World News Daily Report.  It was subsequently picked up by several similar sites, including Huzlers, Nigerian Info and Not Allowed To.

WNDR is one of many fake news web sites currently operating on the internet. A disclaimer on the site states that its content is for “entertainment purposes only” and that the web site is not responsible “for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content.”

This isn’t the first time that a false rumor concerning a woman getting impregnated by sperm that was ejaculated into a pool has circulated around the internet. Nearly every adolescent has heard some type of similar story, almost invariably involving a “friend of a friend.” We first encountered this claim back in 1993.

Last updated: 12 February 2016

Originally published: 12 February 2016