Young People Make a Date With Death German Medical Journal Warns: Suicide Chat Rooms Seduce Adolescents

Cologne, February 21 (idea)  ­ More and more young people are making a date with death on the Internet. According to the German medical journal Deutsches Aerzteblatt in Cologne, Internet forums invite young people to commit suicide.

The journal reports that a 25-year-old Norwegian male and a 17-year-old Austrian female joined such a discussion group on the Internet and then threw themselves off a cliff in Norway. An attempt to jump of the television tower in Dortmund (Germany) was aborted in the last minute.

The vice-president of the German society for suicide prevention, Professor Armin Schmidtke, has watched suicide chat rooms with his co-workers for a year. According to their findings up to six persons per day respond to requests for suicide partners.

According to Schmidtke hints of suicide attempts or chat room discussions on the subject have to be taken very seriously. In Germany suicide is the second most frequent cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds in Germany. More than 11,000 persons take their lives each year in Germany.