What appears to be a suicide cult has claimed another victim in the Welsh town of Bridgend. (See the blog of January 28) Angie Fuller, 18, (picture) was found by her boyfriend, Joel Williams aged 21, hanged at the house they shared. The pair were engaged to be married. Miss Fuller appears to be the 14th young person to have killed themselves in the past year in Britain. Her death follows that of Natasha Randall last month and six young men from the same area. The deaths have fueled concerns about young people's use of social networking sites -- many of the victims had sites on Bebo. Miss Fuller, who worked in a fashion clothing shop, used the websites. On her Facebook profile page she says: "I don't like myself, but hey who does? I'm an angry drunk."
A psychologist writing in the London Telegraph blames "social networking" online for "displacing key periods of emotional and social development with time in front of a screen" and producing social disengagement, loneliness and depression amongst young people. Dr Aric Sigman notes that the trend (in the UK at least) is "part of a growing privacy accentuated by record levels of divorce, the longest parental working hours in Europe, and children having fewer siblings than ever before." He also criticizes "a generation of parents who are determined not to appear uncool. And besides, they're too busy sharing similar tastes in music with their children, who they treat as their best 'mate
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