Youth Suicide Caused By Online Secrecy

"I want my children to bury me."

That was then. Parents bury their children now, because of internet secrecy and diseases with no cure, because they are strange. Young people that commit suicide because of strangers they met online and what they did with them or for them, die with the cause of death. That’s why it is impossible to identify causes of death caused by internet activity.

There are no suspects and no paper trail. Cellphones might provide a lead but parents don’t know the password. Even if the phone is open, they cannot follow the conversation because of false names, special language, abbreviations and code we use online to hide what we are doing.

There are two kinds of friends: human beings with feet on the ground and online friends that cannot be traced, but offered what the dead person regarded as love. Online lovers and friends prefer secrecy away from other people, especially parents. Suicidal thoughts  come into play when online friends and lovers withdraw the affection. It then dawns that whatever activity is involved will lead to shame or diseases with no cure, because they are new.

Governments are quick to label it as mental health and might even include it in the next budget but where do they start? It’s like fumbling in the dark. Parents could not save their kids because they are scared of them. They are not allowed to enter their rooms, let alone ask, ‘Why are you always on your phone?’

Internet linked suicide will continue because the goal is numbers, 100 000 subscribers. We don’t know their faces and intention but who cares? There might be ten bad apples in that number, bubbling with hate.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.