14-Year-Old Dies By Suicide After Mother Stops Him From Playing Games On Phone

A 14-year-old boy in India killed himself after his mother stopped him from playing games on his mobile phone.

Local media reports said that the young teenager in the eastern state of Odisha had returned home from school Thursday, and began playing games on his phone. His parents had given him the mobile phone to attend online classes after schools were closed across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Indian Express reported.

When the boy's mother saw her son was busy playing games on the phone instead of studying for his exams, which were scheduled to take place the next day, she started scolding him. The woman also took away the phone from the child. Enraged, the boy left the room and went to the roof of the house.

The mother made repeated calls to ask the boy to come back into the house, but he did not respond. When the woman went upstairs to check on him, she was shocked to find her son hanging from a towel from the top of the roof. She immediately called for help, following which the neighbors arrived at the house and rushed the child to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead, Kalinga TV reported.

The police have registered an unnatural death case, and the boy’s body was sent for an autopsy. The victim's family and neighbors were in a state of shock following the incident. It remains unclear if anyone else lived in the house along with the mother-son duo.

Last month, an 8-year-old girl escaped a suicide incident after her widowed mother tried to hang her and her older sister before attempting to kill herself. The incident occurred in the southern city of Bengaluru. According to local media reports at the time, the woman was suffering from depression caused by the death of husband two months ago. She had decided to kill herself, and also managed to convince her two daughters to join the suicide pact. But, somehow, the 8-year-old managed to escape.

If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.