The AP (4/29, Tanner) reports a study showed “suicides among U.S. kids aged 10 to 17 jumped to a 19-year high in the month following the release of a popular TV series that depicted a girl ending her life,” called “13 Reasons Why.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Though the study does not prove the show is the cause of the spike, “there were 195 more youth suicides than would have been expected in the nine months following the show’s March 2017 release, given historical and seasonal suicide trends, the study estimates.” Meanwhile, “Lisa Horowitz, a co-author and researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health, noted that suicide is the second leading cause of death for U.S. teens and called it ‘a major public health crisis.’”
Reuters (4/29, Serjeant) reports “the TV show was associated with a 28.9 percent increase in suicide rates among U.S. youth ages 10-17 in April 2017, the…study said.”
Related Links:
— “Study: Kids’ suicides spiked after Netflix’s ’13 Reasons’, “Lindsey Tanner, AP, April 29, 2019