Suicide of 15 year old girl leads to call for ban on suicide websites.

Public outcry after 15 year old London girl Tallulah Wilson took her life last week has led for the elimination of so called suicide websites, after it was revealed Ms Wilson had spent an inordinate amount of time on such sites prior to her taking her own life.

Jumping to her death in front of an oncoming train the girl it is said to have in recent weeks have suffered bouts of bullying at the school she attended and had taken to writing messages on the internet referring to suicide as well  as having visited websites that predominantly featured self harm and anorexia.

Wrote the young girl ominously:

‘why the f*** should I stay if no one around me stay for me? It’s not f***ing fair. I’m done. I’m f***ing done #suicide #goodbye.’

A more recent message had the young girl even writing the following: ‘I don’t want to wake up anymore’.

What though may be a telling sign of the culture of suicide is how the 15 year old girl is said to have dedicated her twitter account to another 15 year old girl, Rosie Whitaker who also committed suicide in June of this year when she too threw herself in front of an oncoming train. In that instance it was also thought the young girl was also influenced by suicide websites.

Reiterated a spokesman for suicide prevention outlet, ‘The Samaritans‘: “It is important that organisations which run sites that are highly popular with young people develop responsible practices around suicide-related content, including promoting sources of support and by removing content which actively encourages or glorifies self-harm or suicide.”

“However, we also know that many people find emotional support by using online forums, blogs and social networking sites to discuss feelings of distress and despair and so the right balance has to be struck to make sure that legitimate online dialogue about suicidal feelings is not prohibited.”

That said unease about the proliferation of such websites has led to Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of BeatBullying to express the following: “We know from our research that young people are alarmed by the number of self harm and suicide sites they encounter in their cyber lives, and for young people who become engaged in these sites they can be incredibly damaging and have devastating consequences.”

Much is being done, by various organisations and children themselves, but the Government and the internet industry must take the issue of keeping children safe online more seriously. It is clear that we cannot afford to wait any longer for this to happen.”

Although one ought to wonder about the prevalence of suicide and how easily digestible such content is on the web perhaps one also ought to wonder how we as a society can reckon with the time honored horrid hobby of bullying other individuals, especially in school where such behavior is rife.

Perhaps there ought to be a revision of what facilitates such behavior at school and if anything the idea of cross harmony and inclusion promoted and not exclusion which often is the aim of bullying, to ostracize another child, singling them out for something that so often is not their fault or simply just beyond them. Then again perhaps here it is where teachers and adults can be most useful in the explaining and encouragement of other attitudes and broader minds, assuming supervising adults and teachers are capable and willing to take on such tasks and even subdue their own prejudices which attentive students will pick up on and perceive as permission to continue with their bullying behavior.

Then there was this very well reflected thought courtesy of one reader on the web that made me wonder as well:

I think that this is so sad. The thing that some young people don’t realise is just how long life is and just how short high school is. High school is an emotional phase in one’s life due to one’s peers and the changes in one’s mind and body. Life does change so much after high school and I think it is so tragic that some young people don’t get the change to see this. In fact, very few emotions in life last forever and this is very important to keep in mind for everyone contemplating suicide. I feel terrible to hear this news.