Internet linked to local suicide

Internet Linked to Local Suicide

In May a stunning USA TODAY/CNN GALLUP poll revealed that 3 out of every 4 teens in America are self-proclaimed “Internet junkies.” Perhaps not since the inception of rock music has something captivated the youth of America with as much fervor as the World Wide Web. This development was greeted with nearly unanimous praise, with the talking head political pundits nearly falling over themselves congratulating our children for embracing this new technology with such open arms.

But reality, of course, paints things with a much grimmer brush.

Touted throughout the sleepy community of Pinedale as an athlete and a scholar of the highest order, sixteen-year-old Billy Smythe had an entire world ahead of him. A Varsity starter in basketball and a 4.0 student, Billy was a young man for whom admiration came easy. So liked was Billy amongst those in the community that nearly all of Pinedale's 1100 residents paid their respects last Sunday afternoon during an emotional closed casket ceremony.

Local sheriff Rick Remar was first on the grisly scene four days previous, when Billy's mother, a frantic Barbara Smythe, had called 911 to report a shotgun blast coming from within the vicinity of her property. “It was horrible,” recalls Sheriff Remar, his face a sickened mask of dark memories. “I found Billy laying facedown in a mud puddle. He had swallowed both barrels of the shotgun. Barbara had to identify him from the shoes he was wearing.”

But the darkest discovery was yet to be uncovered.

After a routine search of Billy's room, Sheriff Remar was shocked to find an entire quasi-criminal world of violence and porn contained within the young man's personal computer. “It was insane,” remembers Sheriff Remar. “Billy was visiting sites like Motivated By Rage and Consumption Junction. He had downloaded hundreds of pictures of pedophilia, bestiality, rape, and crime scene photos… [Billy] was like some kind of pervert let loose in a candy store.”

Billy's parents greeted this revelation with as much pain and suffering as the suicide itself. “I had no idea what he was up to,” said Billy's father, an emotionally distraught Theo Smythe. “I just thought he was doing his homework.”

As the disturbing trend of teen suicide cases continues to rise across the nation, retired Harvard Behavioral Professor David Course sees a direct correlation with Internet consumption. “I think it's pretty clear what's going on out there, “says Professor Course. “The last generation grew up with G.I Joe and the Nestle Quick rabbit, while today's youth spends their time surfing photos of genital piercing. Do you understand? We have a young kid throwing around a Nerf during recess, and then skipping home to download a video of some woman pleasuring herself on a bedpost. Parents need to seriously face what's going on, or these suicides will keep happening.”

Perhaps we'll never know what final image young Billy Smythe saw that forced him to end his life, but the reality of a closed casket for a sixteen-year-old boy should be enough to shake some sense into the parents of America.

The World Wide Web is nothing but a loaded weapon.

--Arch Stanton, Special Correspondent