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Madam – Following the death of Shane McEntee, Maeve Sheehan reported the view of experts (on suicide) that "there is always a complexity of issues surrounding suicide, and death is never the result of a single factor". This is a view that non-experts understand intuitively.
It is a view that has been absent in the reporting of recent suicides of young people associated with cyber-bullying. In these cases, a direct cause and effect has been established between the cyber-bullying and the suicide in a manner equivalent to a balcony push. In so doing, a consensus is created that lays the blame for the deaths squarely at the young people who have played a part in alleged cyber-bullying.
The eradication of cyber-bullying is a well-intentioned cause, but the media needs to be cognisant of the complexity of issues surrounding suicide and the potential damage done to vulnerable young people if they, alone, are implicated for a tragic situation of another young person taking their life.
Brian Kitt, Military Rd,
Kilmainham, Dublin 8
