10 year old hangs herself after bullying

[Kink3bird]

Something is happening to the new generation of youth and I'm not sure what it is. It all seemed to start snowballing after Columbine. Maybe it's the new technology drastically changing the social aspects of children or maybe it's a change is parent's attitudes towards being involved in a child's well-being but something needs to change.

The leading cause of death for young people now is suicide and for some reason no one seems to be bothered by that. To me that's just bat-**** insane.
It's a horrible situation and it's either they hurt or kill themselves or hurt or kill others first. I feel like too many parents and teachers are just telling the victims to just ignore them, don't stand up for yourself just ignore them.. well this bull**** pacifist attitude isn't working.

It's probably one of the toughest problems to solve. How do you teach kids to stand up for themselves without being overtly-violent? How do you teach kids that bullying is wrong when it is inherently apart of the social development for humans? How do you even get these kids to talk? Most of the victims know it'll just get worse by tattling and most are so embarrassed their parents know nothing about it until it's too late...

I seriously am at a loss for ideas. I feel bad for the youth of today and feel as time has shown it's only going to get worse. The number of school massacres is on the rise and so is suicide... someone save them.

[CraeSC111]

I don't think technology has much of a part in what you described. I'd say it would be because of the degradation of morals that we have been seeing in America for a long time. Look at all the stuff that's acceptable now that wouldn't have been thought of 2 or 3 generations before. Look at how many people don't have a religious affiliation. They don't formally teach about morals in schools as much anymore. They don't teach as much critical thinking and life skills.

[Mizel]

Lol You don’t need to be religious to be a good person and have good morals >_< Im not religious, and I know the difference between right and wrong. I don’t need to be frightened by the concept of ‘hell’ to not murder someone or do bad things. Just in the same way that I don’t need to do good things simply to get rewarded by the concept of getting into ‘heaven’. Nor is school where morals need to be taught. That should be something that you learn from your family, or just know. Actually, it really should just be common sense.

Bullying is nothing new. It has been around since the beginning of time. The question is, why can’t kids nowadays handle it? I was bullied from the time I started school until the time I left. Verbally harassed, physically harassed…. never once did I ever consider killing myself. I hear my parents and my grandparents talk about being bullied. They obviously, didn’t consider killing themselves.

But one thing is for sure, is that something in our social structure has changed an awful lot. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re all way beyond desensitized to violence. I imagine that seeing or hearing about suicide wasn’t a very common thing many years ago, and now you hear about things much worse and shrug it off. Perhaps it’s the fact that parents don’t pay enough attention to their kids now, or that if a kid is misbehaving nowadays the first action is to medicate them instead of punish them. When I was a kid, if I did something bad- I got punished, not put on adderall or Ritalin.

Anyways, aside from just the bullying part, society as a whole I believe is going downhill and it’s quite scary.

[Sunsetforgotten]

Honestly, I believe a huge contributing factor is the media. What is becoming acceptable to expose children to is increasing heavily. We see violence, drugs, and death on TV every day, and younger children aren't immune to it either.

[ROFLBRYCE]

Wow this is crazy. I can't believe people aren't opening their eyes to this.

My best friend from grade 7/8 went through a rough time, his little sister committed suicide from their family's situation, hiding it and letting it burden her for so long. Imo parents need to raise their kids so they can comfortably talk about things, without feeling scared or in trouble to do so. I never had that and am slowly working on getting there NOW with my gf, and lemme say that it's a hard life keeping quiet in fear. I hope the family and friends recover a little bit and get the respect they need in this situation.

[Kink3bird]

Lol You don’t need to be religious to be a good person and have good morals >_< Im not religious, and I know the difference between right and wrong.

Yea seriously religion has nothing to do with the situation here.

I still think it's technology. Kids are being brought up with the anonymity the internet provides and it's become a outlet for teenage angst and frustration as well as focusing that anger towards others.
Just look at the comments below YouTube videos, mostly kids behind their computer screen picking fights because they were bullied at school and then this snowballs back into real life.

The internet is like the wild west and I think it's teaching kids that one, their opinions matter because they can see it on a screen. Two, there are no rules on the internet and it becomes a center for hate.

I think the whole media to blame is bull****. I suggest watching "Bowling for Columbine". It's pretty dated now but a brilliant movie showing how the media has just been a scapegoat for societies problems.

Example: Eric and Dylan of Columbine notoriety USED video games and music as a outlet for their anger, it didn't inspire them, they used it for their own sick needs. In the movie no one ever asked "Well maybe it's because a giant military facility is the towns biggest employer?".
What's a bigger message to kids and violence: Growing up next to your dad's job where he builds ICBMs to feed you or a Marilyn Manson song?

Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re all way beyond desensitized to violence.

Also a cool fact. I read the book "Generation Kill" and how the people making up the vast majority of our soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan are kids who grew up on Playstation (suburban white kids heavily desensitized to violence) and inner city minorities who were on the "battlefield" of their projects everyday. It was fascinating to see how this is making a incredible new solider in America.

Bowling for Columbine clip everyone should watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrHFB2KP8fc

[Mizel]

I still think it's technology. Kids are being brought up with the anonymity the internet provides and it's become a outlet for teenage angst and frustration as well as focusing that anger towards others.
Just look at the comments below YouTube videos, mostly kids behind their computer screen picking fights because they were bullied at school and then this snowballs back into real life.

I agree that it's very much related as well. Not a hundred percent, but definitely a huge contributor. I think that another huge contributor is closed mindedness of people, and that mixed with the internet is lethal. Like you said about youtube comments... normally when I read them it's people ripping each other apart for their opinions. Closed mindedness breeds these lies and hatred for anything that you don't consider normal or dont like and the internet and media just exacerbate it.

Also a cool fact. I read the book "Generation Kill" and how the people making up the vast majority of our soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan are kids who grew up on Playstation (suburban white kids heavily desensitized to violence) and inner city minorities who were on the "battlefield" of their projects everyday. It was fascinating to see how this is making a incredible new solider in America.

I kind of this is one of those skewed studies. Like, how eating oatmeal is linked to cancer. Of course it is, because a lot of old people eat oatmeal and a lot of older also people have cancer. But oatmeal doesn't cause cancer. Of course most our soldiers are kids who grew on Playstation, because most kids played video games.
But I do agree that video games lead to desensitized violence. Im not saying people that play military-ish FPS’s like MW, or any game really, are going to be violent in real life, but they will def become desensitized. It actually bothers me to play those games because I feel uncomfortable, even though it’s obviously not real life, shooting realistic looking people in a realistic war scene…. Just creeps me out lol

[Kink3bird]

I kind of this is one of those skewed studies. Like, how eating oatmeal is linked to cancer. Of course it is, because a lot of old people eat oatmeal and a lot of older also people have cancer. But oatmeal doesn't cause cancer. Of course most our soldiers are kids who grew on Playstation, because most kids played video games.
But I do agree that video games lead to desensitized violence. Im not saying people that play military-ish FPS’s like MW, or any game really, are going to be violent in real life, but they will def become desensitized. It actually bothers me to play those games because I feel uncomfortable, even though it’s obviously not real life, shooting realistic looking people in a realistic war scene…. Just creeps me out lol

I see what your saying about the Generation Kill bit but what it showed was how little of a problem soldiers were having adjusting to a war zone and the violence dealt with everyday.

It's kinda like what you just said about not being able to play games like that because it bothers you, for me it's the opposite. I'm looking for the next thing to bring me closer to more over-the-top realistic violence in a video game and I feel maybe that's how some of the soldiers were. I have no problem picking up COD and playing for hours kill after kill and maybe that has helped the soldiers deal with it.

I'm not comparing war to a video game so please don't think that. I'm just saying I'd be very curious to see how much easier it is for someone growing up playing violent games to make the transition into real life violence such as war.

[Mizel]

Oh, I totally see what you’re saying and I agree. I think that’s definitely a logical conclusion, that playing these games would help you in some way adjust to a war setting. Which could be attributed to the whole desensitization thing.

It’s funny cause I think of the movie Idiocracy and how that really could be our destiny lol They’ve already proven in studies that we are becoming stupider due to the internet…and desensitized to violence via media. Being violent and stupid can not have a good outcome :P

[LemonRising]

Freaking ten years old... that's crazy.
Children shouldn't even know ABOUT suicide.

There's no community anymore, no filters on internet and information. Just so much wrong with the world now and there's too many people, no way to help everyone.