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Suicide is a conscious, self-mutilative behavior. It is generally accepted that children comprehend irreversible nature of death at about 8-10 years and therefore suicides below 7 years of age are very rare. Social learning is an important factor causing contagion of suicides especially among children and adolescents. A novel by famous German poet Goethe (The Sorrows of Young Werther) caused suicidal behavior in many teenagers, who also copied Werther’s dressing style and suicide method. The contagion of suicides after a widely publicized suicide is named as Werther effect by David Phillips. In literature, there are cases of children and adolescents who committed suicides after watching a scene of suicide in a TV program but these cases are usually at or above 7 years of age. Herein we present two children who committed suicide and died at age of 5.
Case 1: A 5-year-old boy was brought to child emergency department after hanging himself to a cabinet cover. Interview with his family revealed that he had no previous developmental abnormality or mental disorder. He watched a movie scene in which a female hung herself with a rope and he hung himself half an hour later while his mother was in the other room.
Case 2: A 5-year-old boy was brought to emergency department after hanging himself to a door with a tie. He was alone at home for an hour. Interview with his family revealed that there was a TV-series in which hanging of a victim was shown. His family denied any developmental or mental disorder. Role of TV programs in child and adolescent suicides is a frequently debated topic. The cases we present differ from previous ones with their very young ages, and copycat suicides without a suicide motivation. We suggest that regulations for televisions should include measures to avoid exposure of small children to suicide scenes.