Sarnia, ON had nine teenagers suicide in 18 months recently.
Mental health of teenagers has become a major issue as bullying takes to a new dimension - the internet. Society hasn’t figured out how to protect the most vulnerable yet web-savvy from the vile, free-speech-provoking, anonymity-preserving internet.
The Globe and Mail:
Bullying is far different today than it was even a decade ago. The entwining of social media in adolescents’ social lives has created a whole new environment for abuse. It is bullying that is almost impossible to contain, even when teens change schools or cities, and online anonymity helps shield bullies’ identities.
Rosie DiManno for the Toronto Star:
A whole generation has grown up lacking the restraint demanded by face-to-face encounters. They’ve embraced the concept of non-accountability, of slagging without consequences. That makes them no different from adults who go online to slime, yowling into cyberspace. But teenagers hurt more deeply, have fewer coping skills to deal with rejection and humiliation. They even think suicide is a kind of holding purgatory for lost souls, not grasping the finality of self-destruction.
