Did “13 Reasons Why” lead to a rise in suicides among teenagers?
When the series began streaming on Netflix NFLX, +0.18% in March 2017, child psychologists and parents warned that a show about teenage suicide could cause young people who watched the series to carry out copycat suicides. The show, based on the book of the same name by Jay Asher, follows the story of Hanna Baker, a teenager who kills herself and leaves behind a cassette tape outlining 13 reasons why she decided to take her own life.
A study released this week and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry said there was a 29% increase in suicides among American teenagers aged 10 to 17 in the month (April 2017) after the show aired. “Caution regarding the exposure of children and adolescents to the series is warranted,” the authors said. The link between the show and suicides is correlational, the authors said; as with most studies, it does not prove cause and effect.
Continue reading “Teen suicides spiked in months after Netflix’s ‘13 Reasons Why’”
