Child suicides

[Bill]

I was quite shocked the other day when It was announced that nearly 5000 people commit suicide each year and a large and growing proportion of these deaths were young children that were subjected to online abuse. 

I have my daughter, her husband and their two children living with us at the moment while their house is being refurbished I now I can see first hand how much their life revolves around their mobile phones. I don't know how typical this is but every single day, these two (aged 11 and 13) literally have their faces in their phones from first thing in the morning to last thing at night and are totally oblivious to anything being said to them or happening around them.

Now I'm no expert but I feel that anyone who spends the majority of their life online are far more likely to be affected mentally when things start going wrong in their virtual world. Then because they've lost some of the ability to communicate with the people around them, things can build up that might lead to more serious issues like suicide. 

 

Bill

[asperity]

You're probably right Bill, but short of the Greens getting their way and returning us to the stone age I don't think there's much that can be done other than education.

[Dizzy]

Alas the online word is becoming the norm to youngsters these days and to us 'oldies' too Bill. 
I've seen kids not even into their teen years yet with mobile phones and internet access and of course they are online on computers or games consoles at home too.  We used to limit our lad when he was young to time online and he didn't have a mobile phone with internet as it was just for phone calls and capped too.  If he wanted to go on the internet he had to use our home desktop computer and that was downstairs not up in his bedroom so although we weren't looking over his shoulder it was always clear to us what the was doing or at least he though it was.  That was not intentional it was just the way it was.

Times change though and I guess it's up to us parents or grandparent to hopefully lay the foundations and to let our kids or grand kids know what is right what is wrong but more importantly THAT WE AS PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS OR FRIENDS ARE ALWAYS HERE FOR THEM AND IF THEY DN'T FEEL THEY CAN TALK TO FAMILY OR FRIENDS THERE ARE MANY ORGANISATIONS THEY CAN CONTACT IN COMPLETE CONFIDENTIALITY if they feel life is getting them down or they feel they need need help. Easier said than done to make them realise that though at times but hopefully they will  
Sad thing is I'm sure the vast majority of parents do that and say the same to their kids but still the youngsters take their own lives as do many others.  It's so sad and I really don't know what the answer is other that to reiterate the words "it's ok not to be ok...ask for help it IS there". 
#itsoknottobeok

[Observer II]

I'm reminded of the days when kids were let out to play all day (no gadgets then - unless you count a football and a hoolahoop); and the golden words from Mum as you left the house - "don't talk to strangers".  Now of course some kids did and bad things happened, but nowadays kids can "go out" into the virtual world from the comfort of their bedroom, via the internet, where their young immature minds can be corrupted by all sorts of perversions.  So what do you do, when you have such impressionable minds feeding on rubbish ?   

[algy]

They used to joke about the internet police I honestly believe it's about time the net was subject to the internet police, many of these sites are based abroad, surely they could be monitored and where necessary be blocked.

[Milky]

On 1/10/2019 at 6:48 AM, Evil Sid said:

So how often should a building that is unoccupied be inspected and by whom?

Given that he council have no money to spare then inspecting unoccupied buildings comes way down the list of priorities. Even the council owned occupied ones very rarely get a full inspection, or even an inspection. (Town hall gates right outside the council offices spring to mind. Only got something done when bits started dropping off)

 

On 1/23/2019 at 3:56 PM, Bill said:

I was quite shocked the other day when It was announced that nearly 5000 people commit suicide each year and a large and growing proportion of these deaths were young children that were subjected to online abuse. 

I have my daughter, her husband and their two children living with us at the moment while their house is being refurbished I now I can see first hand how much their life revolves around their mobile phones. I don't know how typical this is but every single day, these two (aged 11 and 13) literally have their faces in their phones from first thing in the morning to last thing at night and are totally oblivious to anything being said to them or happening around them.

Now I'm no expert but I feel that anyone who spends the majority of their life online are far more likely to be affected mentally when things start going wrong in their virtual world. Then because they've lost some of the ability to communicate with the people around them, things can build up that might lead to more serious issues like suicide. 

 

Bill

Please do not get offended Bill but do these children not have parents?

On 1/24/2019 at 11:45 AM, algy said:

They used to joke about the internet police I honestly believe it's about time the net was subject to the internet police, many of these sites are based abroad, surely they could be blocked and where necessary be blocked.

Which sites are banned in what countries and how do they do it and enforce it?

It is not so easy to enforce law and order on the internet, if it was I am sure our legislative happy MPs would have done this by now

[Davy51]

There must be some policing  because a certain  scouse actress has felt the full  clout of the law for posting indiscretely on  social media & contravening a legal ban by posting a photograph on a particular subject .

[Confused52]

The law of the land extends to the Internet just as it does to any other medium. However the Internet is not easily subject to import restrictions as apply to banned books, magazines or films because there is no paper trail that allows seizure of the packets containing banned items before they enter the country. Indeed for some network operators parts of their network are abroad anyway.

The usually quoted example of banning sites is the great Firewall of China where banned sites are not accessible through the Firewall which is connected to all international circuits into the country. The government applies censorship on a massive scale and Chinese nationals only use home grown products as a result. There is monitoring of what users access in the UK but any action can only be taken those who access such sites after the event. The other method used is asking the search engines not to find something or not to report it in particular territories. This is used in places like Germany for political/historical reasons. The final route is to make local ISPs get their DNS service from filtered masters instead of the Global DNS servers, offending sites can be make unavailable as if they had just gone away unless end users know the real IP address to use. The latter DNS trick was used against WikiLeaks. There are other tricks like routing tracking to dodgy sites via wafer thin routes that congest easily or even causing congestion when dodgy content has been detected. Lots of way can be found. Police have a general power to disrupt networks to prevent crime too.

The problem is that all these methods are as applicable to censorship as protection and that is why the authorities tread carefully to avoid crossing the line where they go beyond serving the public interest. Sometimes the line gets drawn in an unfortunate place.

It is a tricky subject with very strongly held views on both sides.

[Milky]

Also while somethings might be illegal in one country it be legal in another and even protected by law such as free speech in the USA.

It is also  easy to bypass local filters, in China gambling is illegal and gambling sites are filtered, does not stop Billions being gambled through overseas providers like Bet 365