Senior citizens, what has changed that makes kids kill themselves now?

Bullying these days is far more sinister than it was when we were kids in the 1950s. Kids did not carry knives, illegal drugs were rare and hard to get hold of so less people were in a drug filled stupour. People generally were kinder and looked out for each other. Bullying was relatively rare and parents, teachers and the police would intervene if anything serious did happen. I only ever knew one young person commit suicide. It was a girl of 14 who got pregnant. That was also very rare back in those days.

One other point to consider is that children played outdoors, innocently, kicking a ball, playing with marbles or dolls and just having fun. They had little money at their disposal so not much for another child to steal or bully a person to hand over. They played outdoors just amusing themselves and, when indoors, they read books, played board games, dominoes, chess and all sorts of other quiet activities after wearing themselves out in the fresh air and sunshine. They usually also had chores to do in the house or garden. Television was in it's infancy (in the U.K.) with just one channel and was only on for a few hours a day) They had no facilities or time or energy to cause mischief or harm to others so the likelihood of a child even thinking of killing themselves was unlikely to happen.

Most people attended some kind of church back then and had a faith family as well as an actual family. Children interacted with parents and neighbours and had other relatives to turn to. Most fathers lived with the mother and the kids and took part in the parenting and very few mothers went out out to work so saw their kids off to school and were there when they returned. so they always had someone to turn to if trouble occurred. Today's kids often don't know where to turn. If they have an absent (or unknown) father, a working mother, no grandparents living nearby etc. they are left to sort out things for themselves. There is no wonder that some see death as being a better option than life.

The birth rate has gone up so it only looks like the suicide problem has gotten bigger. Many of the suicides of the past were covered up for fear of judgement & being denied a church service & burial due to the "sin" factor. I view death as a personal choice. I failed when I attempted it many years ago & I think it was more difficult to have the Police take me into custody & question me rather than completing my task! So, my advice has always been to have a plan for a successful suicide or deal with life on life's terms. People die because they just do!

God being removed from our society.

Your answers were interesting. I would like to add that I think suicide also wasn't made public like it is now.

i may be wrong but think it's something to do with youngsters no longer smacked from toddler tantrum stage and even at that age 'persuaded' into good behaviour with carrot/stars/reward method rather than elimination of treats.

It seems to happen because of contact in social media. Kids are vulnerable, maybe they have no one to confide in, or are influenced too much by looking at computer chats. I dont know. Why parents dont check on their kids I dont know.

WE live in "critical times hard to deal with". This is manifest in the way people treat each other on a daily basis.

Many feel their is no consequences for their actions. Communication in the home sometimes is lacking.

We have the entertainment industry which promotes immoral and violent actions as good entertainment.

Truly man has gone from bad to worse. What can we do? Most people do not want to kill themselves. They just want the pain to go away.

1. Communicate more with children at home and in school

2. Make it know to offenders that it will not be tolerated.

3. Abuse of any kind should have legal consequences in a court of law.

4. Make it a public record of the offenders so it will be difficult for them to get jobs.

If you See Something Say Something! You just might save a friends life.

Kids now don't know how to cope with problems any more. They are used to being given everything and having things done for them. "No" is a word they rarely hear.

Both parents work, there are divorces, the kid feels isolated, so the kid was not taught how to reason, how to make good choices, how to live inexpensively, how to do things for themself, lots of things that would occupy their time instead of getting in the face of other kids.

The internet is a different way of communicating and seems once you learn it you forget how to communicate the other ways (face to face, snail mail and writing, debating sensibly, sign language, etc.). Kids have always been cruel, they speak out what they think, and they have no knowledge so it's all about emotions. Some kids were never taught empathy (their parents weren't around and empathy does not come naturally).

Lots of kids today are taught they can do anything they want to do and be anything they want to be, and that's a truly false narrative. You can study for a certain job but you might not ever get that job and kids don't understand that.

Usually today when a kid takes their life they either feel they don't fit into society (lots of people don't fit into society though but they're not told that), or because some kid they trusted or didn't trust told them to kill themself. So they depended on the wrong people for answers.

I think it has a lot to do with NOT disciplining your child right or not enough and NOT teaching them respects.

With today's society there are just way too many social medias that kids will say or do anything behind their screen because they know they can until they get caught.

Also schools need to be more firm/strict with their rules regarding bullying.

Parents need to teach their kids about peer pressures and not to listen to what other kids are saying, the kids need to know who they really are and not to take things so seriously about what other people/kids say about them. For example kids these days take their looks so seriously that they are begging their parents for plastic surgery! and yes I mean at such a young age too!

I think girls takes it more then boys do.