News:

The number of children who have admitted to attempting suicide has soared by 43% in a year, the British children's charity ChildLine has revealed.

The counseling service said it has received more than 34,000 consultations with children who talked about wanting to kill themselves in 2013/14 - an increase of 116% since 2010/11.

Nearly 6,000 of these children had told a counselor that they had previously attempted suicide- a 43% increase on the year before.

Online bullying is said to be a leading cause according to a new report published by the NSPCC, which runs the service.

Some young people also told ChildLine that their suicidal feelings had been triggered by harmful content they had seen on websites.

ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen said the charity is now receiving "more calls than ever before" from children who are "desperately unhappy." "It is difficult to analyse the cause for this growing unhappiness, whether this is a symptom of our pressured lives, or if the isolation of many young people is due to other factors in the family," she said.

"The fact is that more children than ever are telling ChildLine that they are beset with suicidal thoughts. These are children who would feel unable to ask for help from anyone else. [Source: Huffington Post, 31/10/14]

Comment:

Such statistics ought to cause shame to any society that lauds itself as civilized, with a supposedly superior way of life, emanating from its democracy, freedoms and liberalism as the values to which it holds so dear. These western values are the sole reason that children are subjected to lewd images from TV and film, as well as pop culture and its mass distribution through social networking sites. The overemphasis of personal freedoms has enabled a culture in which rights rather than responsibility are emphasized, leading to an atmosphere of individualism, where accountability is shunned. With parents working longer hours than ever before, pursuing their own pleasures and putting their desires before the needs of their children, its no wonder that psychological neglect is manifesting in depression and suicidal thoughts those most vulnerable amongst us. To be devalued not enabled to understand the workings of the world, their place, their responsibility and how to make their way through it, is an obvious failing, not just of the parents but of the entire society and the inept Capitalist system that allows the lives of its citizens to be ruined due to an ideological inability to prioritize and steer the masses in a fruitful direction.

The Islamic system of life holds the institution of the family in a high position, and works in parallel with all state structures and social mechanisms to support men and women. Rather than an over emphasis on consumerism which largely contributes to robbing families of time together, instead an emphasis is placed upon nurturing contentment and values such as respect, love, compassion and companionship which are lasting and form the basis of further wholesome attributes within a truly civilized society.

(وَقُلْ جَاء الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا)

"And say: Truth has (now) arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish." [Surat Al Israa: 81]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Um Mohammed