Teen Commits Suicide After Parents Ban Her from Facebook

A teenager who took her own life after her parents banned her from accessing her own Facebook page wrote a suicide note saying she couldn't live without the social networking site.

Aishwarya Dahiwal, 17, was found hanged in her room in the western Indian city of Parbhani Wednesday night after an argument with her parents over the excessive amount of time she spent on Facebook, as well as the lengthy conversations she would have on her cellphone.

"Like all parents, their intentions were only to ensure that the girl did not go astray," investigating officer G. H. Lemgude told the Indo-Asian News Service."They advised her to concentrate on her technical studies and stay away from long mobile chats and social networking sites."

In a suicide note she wrote shortly after the argument, Aishwarya blamed her parents and the restrictions they put on her Facebook use.

"Is Facebook so bad?" she wrote. "I cannot stay in a home with such restrictions as I can't live without Facebook."

Newsweek Pakistan says  that, with Internet access spreading rapidly across India, many high school students are ditching their phones  in favor of communicating exclusively over Facebook.

This is serious.