Can Facebook Be Blamed For Suicide?

Like many girls her age, Italian teenager Carolina Picchio shared her pictures, thoughts and emotions on Facebook. But after a video of the 14-year-old allegedly showed up on Facebook in which she appeared to be drunk and disoriented at a party, social media became a source of torment. An ex-boyfriend and his friends posted a steady barrage of abusive, offensive messages aimed at Carolina. And what started out online spilled into her daily life at school, and among her friends in the prosperous northern Italian town of Novara. Unbeknown to her family, it all became too much for her to handle. In the early hours of January 5, she jumped out of her bedroom window, landing headfirst on the concrete below. Carolina’s sister, Talita, and some of the teenager’s friends say they reported the abusive messages from her ex- boyfriend to Facebook in the hope they would be removed. But, they say, nothing happened.