teen suicide

Read the latest reports and articles about teen suicide, depression in teens, and teen suicidal attempts on Newser.com

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Their Children Died by Suicide. They're Suing TikTok

French parents say platform promoted suicide, self-harm, eating disorders

(Newser) - TikTok is being sued by seven families in France, including two that lost children to suicide. The joint lawsuit alleges that the platform's algorithm exposed teens to videos promoting suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders, CNN reports. The lawsuit is separate from a criminal complaint filed against TikTok last year...

There's a Scary Spike in Teen Sextortion Cases

'Washington Post' takes a deep dive into the subject, with a focus on the rise in male victims

(Newser) - Sextortion scams that manipulate teenage boys into sending explicit photos, then blackmail them for money, have "exploded," the Washington Post reports, with incident tips on track to double the already staggering number reported last year. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) says it received around...

Lawsuit Says Amazon Sells 'Suicide Kits' to Teens

Suit blames two deaths on the company

(Newser) - Two families have filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the retail giant of not only selling but essentially curating "suicide kits." Per NPR, the complaint accuses Amazon of assisting in the suicides of two teenagers by selling sodium nitrite and then recommending other products, including a scale, an...

FBI Warns of Sexual Extortion's Tragic Toll

Young male victims sometimes only see shame, experts say, and can't find a way out

(Newser) - The FBI is increasing its efforts to warn parents and teenagers about sexual extortion scams that are leaving young people consumed by shame and, in some cases, pushed to commit suicide. The crime is not rare: Officials say more than 18,000 complaints related to what they call sextortion were...

With No Options, Suicidal Teens Sleep in Emergency Rooms

Increasing demand for inpatient services and declining capacity shut at-risk adolescents out

(Newser) - Even before the coronavirus arrived, mental health disorders were increasing among the nation's adolescents, and the options for residential treatment care were declining. The pandemic compounded the problem, the New York Times reports. "Demand went up, supply went down," says Lisette Burton of the Association of Children’...

Child Actor Matthew Mindler's Campus Death Ruled Suicide

19-year-old was found dead near Millersville University, where he was a first-year student

(Newser) - A former child actor who appeared on the big screen alongside Zooey Deschanel and Paul Rudd was found dead Saturday after being reported missing from his Pennsylvania university on Wednesday. Per Variety , Matthew Mindler, known for 2011's Our Idiot Brother, was found dead in Manor Township near Millersville University,...

Dad: Pandemic Isolation Drove My Teen to Kill Himself

Jay Smith says 16-year-old Spencer struggled with isolation, urges parents to talk to their kids

(Newser) - A high school sophomore and football player took his own life Friday in Maine, and his dad is now warning other parents to keep an eye on their kids' mental health during the pandemic. Jay Smith tells WMTW that his 16-year-old son, Spencer, whom he describes as a "fun-loving...

Teen's Messages With Other Boy Were Posted. Hours Later, He Was Dead

Channing Smith, 16, killed himself in his Tennessee home

(Newser) - On the night of Sunday, Sept. 22, Channing Smith, 16, saw that private, sexually explicit messages between himself and a male classmate had been posted to Instagram and Snapchat. Within hours, Channing was dead, having taken his own life. His family says the cyberbullying is to blame; the Tennessee high...

Oregon Students Win Right to Take 'Mental Health Days'

Activist say they want to remove stigma

(Newser) - Oregon will allow students to take "mental health days" just as they would sick days, expanding the reasons for excused school absences to include mental or behavioral health under a new law that experts say is one of the first of its kind in the US. But don't...

Study Finds Alarming Changes in Suicide Rates

Rate of young girls killing themselves is climbing

(Newser) - Boys are still more likely to kill themselves than girls are, but a new study has found a change in the established patterns, CNN reports. Suicide rates among girls are climbing faster. An analysis of a database run by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that, starting in...

After Debut of Netflix Drama, Teen Suicides Hit 19-Year High

Researchers suspect there was a 13 Reasons Why link

(Newser) - There was a disturbing jump in teen and tween suicides in the month after Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why made its debut, researchers say. The researchers analyzed federal data on suicides among people 10 to 64 from Jan. 2013 through Dec. 2017 and found that the month with the most...

'Disturbing' Messages Investigated After Teen's Suicide

Death rattles Connecticut school district

(Newser) - A Connecticut school district shaken by the suicide of a 16-year-old student says it is investigating "disturbing" messages posted on social media immediately after her death. Danbury High School student Hailey Nailor jumped off the fifth floor of a parking structure at the Danbury Fair mall Saturday afternoon, the...

Devices, Bad for Teens? Now They Might Help

Patterns of smartphone use could indicate changes in mental health

(Newser) - Rising suicide rates and depression in US teens and young adults have prompted researchers to ask a provocative question: Could the same devices that some people blame for contributing to tech-age angst also be used to detect it? The idea has sparked a race to develop apps that warn of...

Town Rallies Around Mom Who Called 911 on Her Son

Mary York almost certainly saved lives

(Newser) - An Indiana mom made a heart-wrenching choice, and now her community is rallying around her. Dozens showed up for a candlelight vigil Sunday in Richmond to support Mary York, who called 911 Thursday to warn that her son was going to Dennis Intermediate School with a gun, per ABC News...

Teen Kills Herself After Uploading 'Racist' Image

Phoebe Connop's Instagram photo spread further than she meant it to

(Newser) - A photo that started out as an Instagram joke meant to be shared among a few friends led a British teen to kill herself after more people saw it than she intended, the Telegraph reports. The problem with the pic taken by Phoebe Connop: She was afraid it would be...

Graphic Teen Suicide Reports May Spur Copycats
Graphic Teen Suicide
Reports May Spur Copycats
STUDY SAYS
May 2, 2014 9:17 AM CDT

Graphic Teen Suicide Reports May Spur Copycats

Researchers pored over newspaper archives

(Newser) - Graphic and extensive news reports on a teen suicide may lead to more teen suicides, a new study has found. Researchers looked at 48 teen suicide "clusters" in US communities where three to 11 teens killed themselves over a six-month period occurring between 1988 and 1996 (before Internet news...

Teen Commits Suicide a Day After Class on Bullying

Brad Lewis says son Jordan, 15, was bullied

(Newser) - On Wednesday, 15-year-old Jordan Lewis watched a video about bullying at his Illinois high school. That evening, police made a "wellness visit" to his home after the grandmother of a friend reported that he had texted her granddaughter about harming himself. On Thursday, Jordan fatally shot himself in the...

2 Girls Arrested After Bullied Girl Kills Herself

Girls charged with felony stalking in Rebecca Sedwick case

(Newser) - Two girls have been arrested in the death of a 12-year-old central Florida girl who authorities say committed suicide after being bulled online for nearly a year, a sheriff said. The girls are 12 and 14, and they have been charged with felony aggravated stalking, Polk County authorities say. Officials...

Dharun Ravi: 'I'm Very Sorry About Tyler'

Tyler Clementi's roommate gives his side of the story

(Newser) - Dharun Ravi says he did something a lot of college kids do: He unthinkingly pranked an awkward, less-cool roommate. But that prank was spying on a homosexual hookup via webcam, that roommate was Tyler Clementi, and Ravi has a hate-crime conviction to show for what he says was a moment...

Suicide the Answer for Russian Teens

Alcohol abuse, rigid parenting make matters worse

(Newser) - For many Russian teenagers, the only way out is death. Experts there are already familiar with the nation's high teen suicide rate (about five a day) and know the causes all too well—but say solutions are hampered by prejudice and social conformity, the Washington Post reports. The most...

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