Search Results for: suicide

As with Columbine High, the Internet is being looked at as having a possible role in Jeff Weise's tragic shooting spree in a Minnesota high school this week. But it might help parents to consider that the reasons for this tragedy have more to do with people than with technology - people online and offline. A number of posts associated with Jeff, in blogs and discussion boards, indicate the mental … [Read more...] about MN tragedy: Whither the Net?

Harassment and bullying can take on "a new and ominous tone" when it happens online, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Especially when online "buddies" encourage a despondent young person, such as Ryan Halligan (who reportedly found solace in the anonymity of Net communications), to commit suicide in October 2003. His dad, "an IBM manager who built his own computers, [John] Halligan, of Essex … [Read more...] about Schools & cyberbullying

The Korean government this week announced a passel of measures it will be taking to protect children and teens in cyberspace, the Korea Times reports. Some of those measures will be laws requiring ISPs to be "juvenile protectors" and regulating advertising; funding new filtering technology for the Web and P2P networks; monitoring "cyber communities, including those for suicide"; and designating … [Read more...] about Korea & Oz: Porn-blocking moves

A UK teen online community was shut down because of allegations that it was being used by bullies to victimize children, The Register reports. Mouth2mouth.tk, "which claims to be the 'largest online teen community' in North London and Hertfordshire ... contained death threats and racist comments, according to anti-bullying charity, Bullying Online. The organization had received complaints from … [Read more...] about Bullying chat shut down

If this weren't a story told by a wire service, picked up by news outlets in other countries, it would be hard to believe. But it's the true story of a 14-year-old boy, "Boy B," attempting suicide by inventing a case for his own murder in online chat. The self-created victim used the anonymity of the Internet to create and pose as various participants in an elaborate story that persuaded a … [Read more...] about A teenager & the tool of anonymity