Japan struggles to deal with child suicides
A child’s suicide is a horrible thing; a spate of them is appalling. What to say, then, when the suicide of children continues unabated, year after year, as it seems to in Japan?
Many child suicides are victims of bullying by other children, and a lot of the bullying happens at school. TV news and “waido” talk shows have drawn what seems to them the inescapable conclusion: the schools are to blame.
That’s simplistic and counterproductive, argues Shukan Post. Maybe, it suggests, TV itself and its “one-pattern coverage” are no small part of the problem. “It’s a media witch hunt,” is the blunt reaction of one school board member to coverage of a student suicide in his district.
One TV station executive admits the possibility that TV by its nature simplifies issues to the point of distortion. “We work under time constraints to meet a broadcast schedule,” he tells the magazine. “So we talk to the child’s parents, we get a statement from the school, and a comment from the school board, and we figure that’s enough. It’s probably the same at other stations.”
“The reason the school gets blamed so often,” adds journalist Mayuko Watanabe, “is that it’s an easy target.”
With the tragedy fresh and the media hordes descending, the schools shift naturally into apology mode. It is otherwise with another key actor in the drama - the alleged bully or bullies, who are generally protected by parents, juvenile law and lawyers.
“Twice I tried to cover the alleged bullies,” says Watanabe. “My boss said no.”
Reflexively fixing blame entirely on the schools distracts attention from other factors that are often involved - family problems, emotional problems, perhaps flaws in society as a whole. It’s a disservice to truth that has potentially corrosive consequences.
“Constant coverage of suicide arising from bullying makes children hyper-self-conscious,” Shukan Post hears from one elementary school teacher. “Somebody tells a kid, ‘I don’t like you,’ and immediately the kid thinks, ‘I’m being bullied.’ Teachers also worry about children who might be influenced by a suicide to do the same.
“Parents too,” continues the teacher, “react to [excessive] coverage of bullying by becoming over-sensitive to it. If they suspect their child is being bullied, they’ll keep the child home and say to the school, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ So the school has to do something, and teachers end up thrusting themselves among the children and forcing solutions to quarrels that the kids could solve on their own.”
The World Health Organization has published a set of guidelines concerning child suicide. They include cautions against overheated reporting, making suicide look in any way heroic, and publicizing suicide methods. Among the positive recommendations is that coverage emphasize solutions other than suicide to “problems of the heart.”
Shukan Post quotes psychologist Hideki Wada as demanding rhetorically, “Does Japanese television follow a single one of these guidelines?
source: JAPANTODAY (SHUKAN POST)
Many child suicides are victims of bullying by other children, and a lot of the bullying happens at school. TV news and “waido” talk shows have drawn what seems to them the inescapable conclusion: the schools are to blame.
That’s simplistic and counterproductive, argues Shukan Post. Maybe, it suggests, TV itself and its “one-pattern coverage” are no small part of the problem. “It’s a media witch hunt,” is the blunt reaction of one school board member to coverage of a student suicide in his district.
One TV station executive admits the possibility that TV by its nature simplifies issues to the point of distortion. “We work under time constraints to meet a broadcast schedule,” he tells the magazine. “So we talk to the child’s parents, we get a statement from the school, and a comment from the school board, and we figure that’s enough. It’s probably the same at other stations.”
“The reason the school gets blamed so often,” adds journalist Mayuko Watanabe, “is that it’s an easy target.”
With the tragedy fresh and the media hordes descending, the schools shift naturally into apology mode. It is otherwise with another key actor in the drama - the alleged bully or bullies, who are generally protected by parents, juvenile law and lawyers.
“Twice I tried to cover the alleged bullies,” says Watanabe. “My boss said no.”
Reflexively fixing blame entirely on the schools distracts attention from other factors that are often involved - family problems, emotional problems, perhaps flaws in society as a whole. It’s a disservice to truth that has potentially corrosive consequences.
“Constant coverage of suicide arising from bullying makes children hyper-self-conscious,” Shukan Post hears from one elementary school teacher. “Somebody tells a kid, ‘I don’t like you,’ and immediately the kid thinks, ‘I’m being bullied.’ Teachers also worry about children who might be influenced by a suicide to do the same.
“Parents too,” continues the teacher, “react to [excessive] coverage of bullying by becoming over-sensitive to it. If they suspect their child is being bullied, they’ll keep the child home and say to the school, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ So the school has to do something, and teachers end up thrusting themselves among the children and forcing solutions to quarrels that the kids could solve on their own.”
The World Health Organization has published a set of guidelines concerning child suicide. They include cautions against overheated reporting, making suicide look in any way heroic, and publicizing suicide methods. Among the positive recommendations is that coverage emphasize solutions other than suicide to “problems of the heart.”
Shukan Post quotes psychologist Hideki Wada as demanding rhetorically, “Does Japanese television follow a single one of these guidelines?
source: JAPANTODAY (SHUKAN POST)