“The parents of one of two teenage girls who died in a joint suicide pact say they are “sickened” their daughter was able to download step-by-step instructions to kill herself from the internet.” – Nine MSN

Although I am loathe to lay the blame at the parents feet, I feel that for them to be able to blame the internet is not acceptable. It’s simply not the internet’s fault.

Protecting kids is an integral part of being a parent. The adjective there is “protecting”. The internet is an information source, a super highway of information if you will, and just as with highways of any sort you need to protect your kids when they are anywhere near it.

You cannot blame the highway when the kid gets run over. The highway did not allow them to play unsupervised.

“Ms Gater said Jodie often talked of future plans and gave no sign of her suicidal feelings.” And yet also from the article “The girls were keen internet users and had posted a number of dark messages on their websites in the months leading to their deaths, including several clear references to suicide.” Their websites? So these girls had their own websites and they posted “dark messages” and “clear references to suicide” and yet the parent claims there was no sign of suicidal feelings.

I feel for the families of Jodie and Stephanie and understand the need for them to lash out but “Greater Regulation of the Internet”, at least in this instance, is NOT the answer.