Oh come on! give me a break! You can't blame the internet for teen suicides. How about we go blame the real cause of teen suicide - PEERS! Teens kill themselves cause of what others say about them. Peers humiliate, bash and bully one another until one of them can no longer take it anymore and the only way out, they think, is to kill themselves.
I saw it everyday in school - people talking about others behind their backs and spreading hurtful, disgusting rumors. Rumors and lies that inevitably make the poor kids self destruct and either kill themselves or bring a gun to school and shoot it up.
Most American schools have the 'Zero Tolerance' policy. For those of you who do not know what it is or have never heard of it, let me explain. The 'zero tolerance' policy is kinda like an 'one strike and you're out' rule in which if a student bullies or threatens another student, the authority figures take strict, immediate action against that bully. The punishment - immediate suspension from school.
Unfortunately, getting suspended from school, in the eyes of the person who got suspended, is like a vacation from school for a week. Then, a week later, they come back and everything seems cool.
Then, the bully starts harassing that same kid again but this time even worse. The bully now knows that the kid 'ratted' him/her to the deans and begins spreading even more hurtful lies about that person. Then, before you know it, you got entire cliques bullying this kid.
So, what happens next is a huge chain reaction. The child gets depressed and no longer hangs out with friends, no longer participates in class. Their grades begin to fall which puts them into an even bigger depression and while this is happening, they are getting hammered by these hateful comments and rumors.
In the end, you see this in the newspaper:
http://www.halflifesource.com/news/2007/11/14/article10088.htm
Prof.