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Thread: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

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    The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    Lost in a tragic web: internet death pacts increasing worldwide
    Ben Cubby
    April 24, 2007

    INTERNET suicide pacts remain rare, but the disturbing trend has increased dramatically since the first known case in Japan in 2000.

    Hundreds of cases of internet-related suicide have now been recorded in Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States.

    As appears to have been the case with the Melbourne teenagers Stephanie Gestier and Jodie Gater, a small number of people leave messages on internet sites before attempting suicide.

    MySpace - the matrix of web chatrooms used by the two girls - has also become a grieving place for friends and relatives of people who have died, with impromptu, collaborative obituaries often springing into existence within hours of a death.

    Stephanie Gestier's mother, Juli, was among the mourners to post a message on the internet yesterday.

    "Stephanie, why didn't you tell me you were so upset? Why didn't you just come home?" her message read.

    When the South Australian teenager Carly Ryan was found dead in February, her MySpace account was flooded with messages from friends - many of them members of the same Goth and Emo subcultures as the two Melbourne girls who were found dead on Sunday.

    Following Britain's first internet suicide pact in 2005, in which two strangers met online and died side by side, the British Government moved to make chatrooms that were deemed to be risky harder to access.

    The world's fifth most popular website, MySpace has more than 50 million registered users. A website called mydeathspace.com has been set up by users in San Francisco, operating independently of myspace.com, to record MySpace users who have died.

    http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/internet-death-pacts-increasing-worldwide/2007/04/23/1177180569471.html

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    does anyone know what happened to their article discussion thread? i went away for a while and its gone  :x :?

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    thats really sad about Steph's Mom's message to her daughter 'why did'nt you tell me..'
    ‘I don’t mind dying - I just don’t want to be there when it happens&#039;<br />

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    Not trying to be a dick.&nbsp; But if parents gave a shit about what their kids are doing online, she may have seen the warnings.

    She is on a mission now to remove Stephanie's web presence.

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    damn, i noticed her VF account's deleted...
    man
    as if you wouldn't want her memory to live on...even if it is in cyberspace.
    :-(

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    [quote author=Mortis link=topic=6748.msg353399#msg353399 date=1178882240]
    Not trying to be a dick.&nbsp; But if parents gave a shit about what their kids are doing online, she may have seen the warnings.

    She is on a mission now to remove Stephanie's web presence.
    [/quote]thats true I would so far up in my kids business it would'nt be funny.
    ‘I don’t mind dying - I just don’t want to be there when it happens&#039;<br />

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007


    I only found out tonight that this was Steph when they showed her photograph on &quot;60 Minutes&quot; as part of their story on how the internet is a dark dark place &amp; how they found out how to kill themselves online.... no offence intended to their parents but more at the media but how small minded are you? Our Girl Guides &amp; Boy Scouts are taught knots:&nbsp; noose included.&nbsp; Reference books in public &amp; school libraries have full descriptions also.&nbsp; You dont need the internet, just a standard education to be able to source the information.

    There seems to be not a lot left online about Steph or Jodie, which is really sad.&nbsp; There's a beautiful saying 'A man only truly dies when he is forgotten' &amp; by removing all record from the public eye it seems that is what the two girls' parents are doing.&nbsp; I remember Steph as happy &amp; chatty from where I knew her on VF - she was an active member in a club i was also a part of; always entering competitions &amp; voting &amp; sharing stories &amp; advice, she was also member of the month last november.&nbsp; In trying to find out if it was the same Steph I knew by hitting various websites I came across a lot of dead ends &amp; started utilising google's cache... where I found that even websites set up to honour her memory were being removed from sight.

    I'm still sitting here in shock that it happened.&nbsp; I didnt see it coming... but then, i hadnt been online much in the past few months.&nbsp;

    What I dont understand the most though, is why remove their online mention from everywhere??

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    Could be shame of themselves, feeling they failed their kids. Or it could be shame of the kids actions and their lifestyle that the parents apparently had no idea they lived, sadly.

    I like that saying you quoted...'A man only truly dies when he is forgotten &amp; by removing all record from the public eye'

    I haven't walked in those parents shoes, so I can't say what I would do in their position. But I like to think that just by being on this site, I would make a more educated decision about keeping their public information public. To delete or not delete...that is the question! I hope I never have to make those kinds of decisions....EVER!

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    [quote author=Mortis link=topic=6748.msg353399#msg353399 date=1178882240]
    Not trying to be a dick.&nbsp; But if parents gave a shit about what their kids are doing online, she may have seen the warnings.

    She is on a mission now to remove Stephanie's web presence.
    [/quote]

    I agree with people not caring what their kids are doing on line. Perhaps she would have known a little more about her own child if she were not using the computer as a device to entertain her child.

    She is ashamed of what happened is why she is erasing her daughters presence on the web. She wants to retain the idea that nothing was wrong. Denial is an ugly thing.
    <br />&quot;If you aren&#039;t going to use the head on your shoulders, I will remove it by any means necessary .&quot; <br />

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    I don't understand this one in particular. I was really involved in this one, and there were no overt drug references. I mean there were some, but it wasn't the focus of their sites, or their lives from what I gathered.

    Stephanie was articulate, smart, and popular on the web, if not in real life.&nbsp; The bullying that was mentioned in the article thread didn't seem so extreme that it was obsessed on.

    I can see not wanting the world to remember your kid as an addict, loser type.

    But these girls were artistic, and with the publicity it got,&nbsp; (I got over 300 hits on my site when I added their names), it seems like they could do some good through their deaths. I would rather think my child's death could maybe help some other troubled kid, than to erase them.

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    Suicide pacts ... I just don't get them.I would be afraid the other person would change their mind and I'd be the dead one.

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    [quote author=Draganin link=topic=6748.msg369644#msg369644 date=1179679044]
    Our Girl Guides &amp; Boy Scouts are taught knots:&nbsp; noose included.&nbsp; Reference books in public &amp; school libraries have full descriptions also.&nbsp; You dont need the internet, just a standard education to be able to source the information.
    [/quote]

    Excellent point.

    I agree, Stephanie's mom is clearly shamed by either her daughter's &quot;alternative&quot; :roll: internet lifestyle, or more likely, that she couldn't stop her from doing it.&nbsp; Whether that means that she couldn't physically stop it, or that she was clueless about her daughter, I don't know.&nbsp; I understand her reaction to this, but I think Stephanie would be pissed if she knew.

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    Re: The Sydney Morning Herald - Lost in a Tragic Web 4/24/2007

    The parents' efforts to remove any mention of Stephanie from the Internet reminds me of the message submitted with Adam Huberdault's death:
    http://mydeathspace.com/article/2007/05/24/Adam_Huberdault_(20)_died_from_Auto_Erotic_Asphyxi ation
    Blaming other people for your problems and never having any personal accountability is so typical. Everything is always someone else's fault. Makes me want to scream&nbsp; :2angry:
    Calling, calling, for the place of knowing<br />There&#039;s more than what can be linked<br />Calling, calling now, never will I look away<br />For what life has left for me

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