Suicide Support Sites Can Pose Danger to Teens

Aug. 15, 2006— -- Three years later, the pain still felt by a California family can still serve as a lesson to us all: Don't hesitate to talk to a troubled teenager.

"She's in my heart every day," said that teen's dad, Mike Gonzales. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her."

It's a horrifying story about Internet danger, and was first told in Seventeen magazine. In 2003, Suzanne Gonzales, a 19-year-old college student, killed herself three months after she began visiting an online discussion group for people who want to talk about suicide. Gruesome as it sounds, there are many sites out there about suicide, anorexia, self-injury.

"Suzanne made me laugh and smile every day that I saw her," said her mother, Mary Gonzales.

She was creative and quirky and wore glasses with no lenses just because they looked cool.

"She was on the computer a lot," said her mother. "She was a computer geek."

Suzanne's straight-A's in high school got her a full college scholarship in Florida -- far from her sister and parents in Red Bluff, Calif.

"What parents need to realize is that unlike most other situations teens can find themselves in, this one is completely new," said Atoosa Rubenstein, editor in chief of Seventeen magazine. "It's not something parents can think back to from their own childhood and remember how their parents handled this. This is new because of the online technology we have and parents need to be aware of it. You don't want your children hanging out with the wrong crowd. And these Web sites are even worse than that. They are the wrong crowd devoted to the wrong topic. The Internet sites for anorexia may be the most popular."

Behind her smile, Suzanne had become withdrawn and very depressed. Her close friends didn't know why. Her family didn't know at all. Sometimes there are very visible signs that a teen is struggling with depression, and Rubenstein said it is important to know them and act on them if they appear.