J' accuse - How the media and the Daily Mail's lies are connected to the death of Sam Leeson

Sam Leeson is dead. The 13 year old boy killed himself on Thursday June 5th after a campaign of online and real life harassment just because he liked emo and Heavy Metal. Another case of bullicide just like others we have covered.

This was a tragedy. Obviously those who immediately to blame are those bullies who victimised an innocent directly just because he liked a certain type of music and dressed in a certain way.

Behind them however a heavy weight of responsibility rests on the Daily Mail and other media sources who repeated and in some cases sensationalized the reports of Hannah Bond's death and others. Let us examine the time line of events to see what happened:


16 Aug 2006
“ EMO cult warning for parents” The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail publishes a spectacularly inaccurate article. No research evidence is used to back up its conclusions. The article is frequently quoted on anti Emo websites in the next few years. It sparks a wave of criticism from MCR and their fans.

March 25, 2007

"Who said Romance was dead?" TIM DE LISLE
Mail on Sunday, March 25, 2007 Sunday SECTION: FB 04; Pg. 72

In a review of a My Chmical Romance gig a Mail reporter states:

"

My Chemical Romance are loud, dark, heavily made-up and suddenly
popular.
They have even been accused of leading a cult of self-harm, although the
evidence is slight. The subject of self-harm does crop up in chatrooms populated
by the band's fans but they can hardly be blamed for that and their response has
been clear enough: 'We do not encourage self-harm.' They frighten some parents,
but others are here with their children, and some older people are even here of
their own accord. Behind me, two men are reminiscing about a gig by The Damned
in 1976.

My Chemical Romance are not so much objectionable as
puzzlingly hard to place not quite punk, not quite emo, not quite metal. At last
summer's Reading Festival they were pelted with bottles by fans of the veteran
death-metal band Slayer."

It is significant that this report completely contradicts what the Mail claimed about MCR in 2006 and in 2008. Which is correct?




September 22 2007

Hannah Bond commits suicide in East Peckham

January 23rd 2008
Beginning of wave of irresponsible coverage of Bridgend suicides by national media including the Mail which is later criticised as irresponsible by the police and The Samaritans. It is interesting to note that of the 20 young people who have died in Bridgend only one of them seems to be a fan of alternative music. Statistically given the chart success of Emo and metal bands this is well below average. None of the coroner reports has highlighted musical choice as a factor in the Bridgend deaths.

May 8th 2008

Following the verdict of the coroner’s court this local Newspaper article this forms the basis for coverage by national media.
Teenage girl's music obsession suicide link

http://www.yourmedway.co.uk/kent-news/Teenage-girl_s-music-obsession-suicide-link-newsinkent12700.aspx?news=local


May 8th 2008

Link to Hannah's bebo tribute page posted online on 4 chan. Immediately it is spammed massively with anti-emo insults .


May 9th 2008 - Telegraph, Mail and Sun
The press sieze on the coroner and local press report. This coverage triggers a further mass wave of anti emo propaganda on the internet. Some of this is the work of elements in association with the Internet group Anonymous. The rest comes from the ongoing sites which ferment anti-emo prejudice. Many of these are frequented by listeners of other alternative music especially metal.


May 14, 2008 Wednesday

Mail publishes a good letter criticising its coverage. Unfortunately it ignores everything it says in an article a few days later:

I'M A 14-YEAR-OLD who loves emo music, but I cannot associate it with the
unfortunate suicide of a 13-year-old girl (Mail). Emo is a music genre, not a
fashion. It doesn't glamorise death it makes people fear it
less.

There's too much labelling and stereotyping these days. Many
people who have read about the new emo 'trend' have bullied me more than before,
because I fitted into the 'emo' description by liking rock music and dying my
hair black. This made my school life utter chaos and it has only recently
started to improve. Why do the newspapers never pick on any other genre or
scene? It's always emo that is under attack and normally without explaining the
difference between emo and goth. There's no way in which you can blame My
Chemical Romance for the suicide of teenagers. The lead singer, Gerard Way, is
one of my few idols.

He's always telling people 'not to kill
themselves because it's not worth it' and that 'you shouldn't let people get you
down'. The group has never promoted suicide. Gerard tells all girls to respect
themselves and not to do as men tell them. He gave me confidence hope,
even.

The main character in the song The Black Parade was a cancer
victim, not a suicide victim. The lyrics mean that despite the fact that you're
dead, we still love you and cherish the memories. They do not mean 'die now and
we'll all remember and glorify you'.

You can't blame music for the
loss of children's lives there are such things as bullying and
self-hate…
SOPHIE BROWN (14), Llandybie, Carms..

16 May 2008
"Why no child is safe from the sinister cult of emo"
By TOM RAWSTORNE Daily Mail 16 May 2008

The Mail continues to distort the truth. This contains a number of inaccurate and misleading statements including the following:

1 - MCR is defiantly an Emo band. – As the Mail reported in 2007 MCR’s association with Emo is questionable.
2 - ) “the 'black parade' is a place where all emos believe they will go when they die” - This is blatantanly untrue. All emos don't belive anything of the kind.
3 - The rate of self harm has indeed risen from as the article states "New figures show that the number of children admitted to hospital due to injuries inflicted on themselves has risen by a third in five years.In 2002/03 there were 11,891 such admissions; in 2006/07 this had risen to 15,955". - However what the Mail does not mention is that the rate of suicide has dropped in that same time period. If Emo/MCR causes suicide it should have peaked in 2006 with MCR reaching no 1. In fact the peak was 1998 long before MCR was formed or emo was popular in the UK.
4 – The article does not mention that MCR has consistently campaigned against Youth suicide and self-harm despite the Mail on Sunday mentioning it in print in 2007.



Like earlier articles this generates a wave of internet controversy.

May 20th
Mail publishes another letter criticising its coverage:

" I FOUND it very difficult to read Tom Rawstorne s article on Hannah Bond s
suicide because I m a 15-year-old girl who is stereotyped by my peers as emo .
This is because I listen to bands such as My Chemical Romance and wear clothes
that are apparently emo (skinny jeans, studded belts, band tees, hoodies). I
wouldn t mind being stereotyped so much most teenagers are put into some
stereotype. What I mind is going into school every day and having to put up with
people shouting such horrific things as Why aren t you dead, emo? and Emo, go
slit your wrists and die . All this because of how I dress and the bad press my
favourite band gets? Rather unfair, I think....
AOIFE MULLEN, Drogheda, Co
Louth."

Sat May 31st - MCR/Emo March against Daily Mail's biased reporting.

The Mail claims its reporting is fair and balanced.


Thurs June 5th - Sam Leeson kills himself


Online bullying of Emos certainly has peaked in the last month. There are a number of reports I am gathering that this carried over into real life with an increase in bullying of emos in school and elsewhere.

If I was working for the Daily Mail I would hang my head in shame. The Daily Mail claimed its reports were balanced they were not an example of balanced reporting can be seen in the Times or BBC's reports on the same issue. They created an atmosphere which supported and justified and irrational prejudice. Just like in the 1930s when the Mail headline read "Hurrah for the Black Shirts" their biased reporting has now come back to haunt them.

Alterophobia is in position of interesting new evidence which further highlights the media's irresponsibility in this matter.

Mental Nurse on Emo and self harm - Daily Mail screws up a vulnerable teen's therapy

Found an interesting blog on the recent anti-emo stuff in the Mail by a mental nurse at http://www.mentalnurse.org.uk. He/she works in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services sommwhere:

I think I’ve give a real-world clinical example, dealing with a self-harming emo kid.

A quick caveat before I do. Teenage self-harming is not an “emo thing”. We see plenty of cutters in CAMHS, and the bulk of them are not emos. Chavs cut themselves too. In fact, some kids cut themselves despite not being part of any fashion clique at all. It’s almost as if self-harm were a mental health issue rather than a fashion trend. Strange, that.

Anyway, let’s bring in our emo. He’s 15 years old, and in honour of My Chemical Romance, we’ll call him Gerard. read more here More on Emo

The most worrying thing about this is that in the blog Dr Cretin takes his ideas on emo from the press reports.

Dr Cretin is…shall we say…a little old-fashioned. Therefore I had a feeling things weren’t go to go well when Gerard turned up to the appointment wearing eyeliner.

Dr Cretin looks at him disapprovingly. “So….this emo cult that you’re involved in. Is that why you started cutting yourself?”

Emo cult? Oh Christ, please don’t tell me Dr Cretin read that bloody Daily Mail article...

By this point Gerard looks like he’s about to cry. Which is unsurprising, since he’s just been told his personal identity is a cult and he should get rid of all his friends.

Once again proof that the Daily Mail screws with peoples lives. The nurse seems to think (with good reason) that the kids interest in bands is in fact a positive thing. "I’ve explored in sessions what Gerard feels he gets out of being an emo. His answers: a sense of identity, a feeling of mutual understanding with others, being accepted and valued in a way that he isn’t by the bullies at school who push his head down the toilet."

And once again we note the kid has been bullied in school as well.

The original comments on the Mail emo article are classic in pointing out its absurdity but they also note:

Funnily enough, we haven’t any seen that many emos come into CAMHS lately (though we’ve got a few goths). We actually see a lot more chavs than any other subculture.

So according to an inexact survey it is chavs, not emos that self harm more at the moment. But as they also point out it might be that social services intervene in "chav" cases more often.

Basically the point is stupid sterotypes about mental conditions cause more harm than anything else. And where do they come from ? Media nonsense is one source.

More on Mexico

Beatings and abuse give Mexico's emo teens plenty to feel ...
The Observer, UK - 21 hours ago
Burgeoning anti-emo sentiment exploded here last month when hundreds of young people in the central city of Querétaro heeded a call to rid the central ...

Why Are Emo Kids Getting Attacked In Mexico?
MTV.com - Apr 4, 2008
They shoved the three against a wall and began kicking and punching, shouting, "Kill the emos!" and filming the incident on their cell phones.

This article tells the usual unfounded lies about goth/emo. How about considering whether the parent in this case bears any responsibilty for the actions of his children rather blaming music.

Knowing what teens are into helps parents stay step ahead
Winston-Salem Journal, NC - Apr 2, 2008

“Unlike the Goth subculture of teen angst and disenchantment with society, emo is a cult of self-loathing,” he wrote in a recent e-mail, referring to kids who favor the forbidding “Goth” look of black clothing and dyed black hair. “Emo turns the malcontent a Goth may have towards the world unto the self. A disturbing aspect of emo is the use of self-mutilation to extract revenge for perceived slights from family and friends.”

Palmer Edwards, a Winston-Salem psychiatrist who works with adolescents, is familiar with emo and the acts described by Gene.

“The term has been around for several years,” Edwards said. “Basically it means emotional.… Emo kids are thought to be very emotional and down on themselves.”

Calling every kid who wears dark clothing and combs his (or her) hair down over the eyes “emo” would be a vast overgeneralization, but any sudden change in a kid’s behavior is certainly worthy of parental inquiry and investigation.

“Goth is so common that there’s a store in Hanes Mall that caters to the look,” Edwards said. “I’m not sure how rebellious something is if it has its own store in the mall. However, there could be some depression going on. It can range from the mild end that would require a period of adjustment to super severe in which a psychiatrist may be needed.”

Gene and Edwards agree that not every kid in dark clothes is considering suicide or self-mutilation.

“Parents should be leery and may want to speak with their kids about it,” Gene said.

Slash hates Emos? Mxico anti-emo row still going on

A classic case of irresponsible reporting.

Slash and Perez Hilton Split Votes On Emo
Exclaim!, Canada - 31 Mar 2008

And if things weren’t bad enough, guitar-master extraordinaire, Slash, has now stepped up to fuel the fire. In a recent interview with the Daily Star, the former Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist weighed into emo, and modern rock in general. “Rock ’n’ roll is so diluted in this millennium, you just don’t hear good solos. And I hate emo,” Slash said. “With the exception of Jack White —who is great — the new breed of bands aren’t bringing out decent guitarists.” So it’s official: Slash hates emo.

Look again:

A - Slash wasn't talking about Mexico
B - Or assaulting emos

He was stating he hates emo music. A fair comment. What is not fair is to report that hating emo music and hating emos is the same thing and that Slash wants riots to happen. It is not a question of taking sides on whether emo music is any good. The question is whether it is right to physically beat some one because they listen to a certain type of music or dress in a certain way. If you advocate that you are arguing against the freedom of speech and expression which is at the heart of democracy, and you are on the same side as both the Taliban and the Nazis.

You might think anti-emo riots are funny if it was attacks against Jews or blacks would you be laughing?

"At the core of this is the homophobic issue," Victor Mendoza, a youth worker in Mexico City, told Time magazine. "The other arguments are just window dressing for that. This is not a battle between music styles at all. It is the conservative side of Mexican society fighting against something different."

Conspiracy theories meanwhile are rife:
Mexico’s media spotlight youth subcultures
Daily O'Collegian, OK - 31 Mar 2008

More important posts from Daniel Hernandez. Now an academic is arguing emos are not a bonafide 'tribu urbana' because they don't have a political ideology. >

The specialist in urban groups Héctor Castillo Berthier indicated that to consider the emos an urban tribe is incorrect, as they do not adhere to the characteristics necessary to be one, and they only represent a fad.

The article "also quotes someone who says 40 percent of emos are suicidal." Once again the typical lies are trotted out. I have yet to find any academic article which shows emos are more more likely to kill themselves than other groups.

Great so its ok to beat them up if they are sucidal or part of a "fad" then? Emos are a "fad" really - the man is a fool - the original Emo music was almost thirty years ago. Emo subculture in its modern form developed in the late nineties. It might be newish in Mexico but so was punk and goth once, both of which had popular "fad" periods in the UK and elsewhere. The main anti emo site in Mexico dates from 2006 alone which means emo must have been around for a few years before that.

Risky to be an Emo?

Usual stereotypes apply in this article which reports the authorities being plain stupid. Of course the real risk in being an Emo is going to Mexico or facing a barrag of misunderstanding and lies.

The Macon County Board of Education voted at Monday's meeting at Highlands School to present a "risky behaviors" program to all of the county's students in grades five and above.

The vote followed a presentation by Macon County Sheriff Robbie Holland, who showed the board and audience members a revised version of the program that was presented at Franklin High School several weeks ago. The presentation was created following the Feb. 25 death of Macon Middle School student Sarah Beck. Beck died from what is known as the "choking game," which also claimed the life of a Jackson County teen five months ago.

"We should have taken notice five months ago, and we didn't," Holland said.

The presentation will be shown to fifth graders as part of the DARE program, and it will be available by appointment for upper grades from the sheriff's office. The presentation is about 45 minutes long, and it includes information on the choking game as well as inhalants, misuse of over-the-counter drugs and the EMO culture, also known as goth, in which participants are encouraged to cut themselves.

Board OKs program on risky behavior
Franklin Press, NC 25 Mar 2008

Russian Schools to Struggle Against Emo :: Russia-InfoCentre

Building on previous report on The Russia panic and in the footsteps of Malta the strange panic over Emo we have noted continues.

Russian Schools to Struggle Against Emo :: Russia-InfoCentre

20.02.2008

The authorities of Nizhni Novgorod are concerned with protecting youth from the Emo movement. The regional Ministry of Education has provided all schools with directives warning them against the social danger of this youth subculture.

The officials have given a detailed description of how Emo followers look like and warned against this movement’s ideology, according to which Emo representatives “are immortal and in case of death they simply change their inner shape”. “The dream of every Emo is to die in a bathroom after cutting one’s veins in wrist area (it is sort of sport for them). Due to this some of them wear bandages covering the wounds” – the document reads.

The directives have been initiated by the letter addressed by Oleg Khramov, Head of Federal Security Service Department for Nizhni Novgorod Region, to the region’s Governor Valery Shantsev.

What is emo? - Fox News and others weigh in while Russia panics

Russian Region Discovers “Emo” Subculture

February 13th, 2008

Related Post

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• More Arrests in Nizhny Novgorod
  

Filed Under: All News • Culture

Tags: education • emo • Nizhny Novgorod • popular culture

Nizhny-Novgorod, February 11th:

A subculture known for black fingernails, angled bangs and rock music, popular among some Russian teenagers, is under attack. On Monday, the Department of Education of the Nizhny-Novgorod oblast called for a campaign to combat a movement known as “emo”. The classification, which originated from an independent music movement in the United States, is short for “emotional,” and now relates as much to a fashion style as a genre of music.

The Department’s move comes after the local branch of the Federal Security Bureau Directorate (UFSB) brought forth a report describing repeated instances of “unconventional religious trends, and civic organizations disseminating ideas of a negative youth subculture.” The information first became public from a circular published by the Education Department.

The document, in part, reads: “According to information from the Nizhny-Novgorod oblast UFSB, the oblast is seeing the growth of ideas of the emo negative youth subculture, which are connected with suicidal tendencies of teenagers 12-16 years of age.”

The text then vividly described the emo stereotype: clothing with pink and black colors and two-toned designs. Blue-black hair. Long bangs. Fingernails painted black. Piercings.

The FSB informed the educators that “the emo ideology negatively influences the unformed teenage psyche. According to the ideology, its members are immortal, and each one’s dream is to die of blood-loss in a warm bath, by cutting the veins on the wrist region. Many of the teenagers are depressed, withdrawn in their thoughts, and the girls are very inclined toward suicide on account of unrequited love. The young people drawn to the emo movement imagine that they have an ‘allergy to happiness.’”

Based on the information taken from the FSB, the department called on its teachers to maintain vigilance and to take measures directed “at explaining the negative consequences of entering into alternative civic organizations.”

Meanwhile, the emo subculture could not be reached for comment.

The Fox News report is interesting because it shows a bit about the tedency for emos to be attacked:

Farmington Daily Times - What is emo?

2 Feb 2008

ARMINGTON — The generation gap is only widening.

In 1930s Germany, swing kids defied convention by embracing jazz music and mocking Nazis.

Hippies did the same thing in 1960s America with tie-dyed T-shirts and psychedelic rock.

Then there were the goths, the punks, the skaters and the rappers — all groups of teenagers and young adults intent on expressing themselves through dress and music.

The latest fad, emo, includes dark makeup, tight clothing and a permanent frown. The style has changed, but the phenomenon known as teenagers remains the same. And it's still music that makes the world go 'round.

"I think music really influences people," said 17-year-old Shawn Yazzie. The Piedra Vista High School senior has been part of the emo culture for four years.

"Music is individuality," he said. "It depicts emotions."

The term emo is derived from "emotional" or "emotive." The culture stems from a subgenre of punk music originating in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s and revolves around displays of deep emotion
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in music, dress and attitude.

Emo music often includes screaming, crying or other outpourings of emotion, Yazzie said.

"There is a deeper message in it," he said. "It's different than other music. It becomes more about a personal focus."

Teens dressing in emo fashion often dye their hair black and wear it long over one eye. Other patterns of dress include tight jeans, T-shirts that bear the names of rock or punk bands, studded belts, canvas sneakers and thick, black-rimmed glasses. Heavy eye makeup on males and females also is popular.

Like most fads, emo comes with stereotypes, Yazzie said. The dark clothing and emotional music can lead to beliefs that emo teens are depressed or suicidal.

"It's not true," Yazzie said of the stereotype. "Emo is just another way to dress. It's just like people who like to wear football T-shirts or pink all the time. We like to wear black."

Misunderstood

Despite explanations, emo teens often are misunderstood — by their parents, teachers and peers, said Virginia Nickels, a choir teacher at Piedra Vista High School.

Nickels began teaching in 1990. She has seen teenage fads come and go as quickly as taste in music changes, but she's never seen a style so dark, she said.

"Emos are very withdrawn," she said. "They don't have a lot of friends that I see. They're quiet, and even their posture is influenced. They walk with their heads down and their shoulders slumped."

As a music instructor, Nickels witnesses firsthand how beat and lyrics can influence dress and lifestyle. But fashion and music have taken a darker turn since the leg warmers and moonwalks of the 1980s, she said.

"I see emo as being pretty dark," she said. "I don't know if it's unhappy, but I wonder what's behind the clothes and the makeup."

Being misunderstood is part of a normal teenage life, said David Johnson, clinical social worker and president of New Horizons in Farmington. Johnson treats several emo teens, but said the clothing and music alone are not a cause for concern.

Only about 2 percent of the local teen population is emo, Johnson said. Most belong to upper middle class families and most are between the ages of 13 and 17.

"They're trying to say they're different from the rest," he said. "That's their job from the teen years until they're 20 or 25."

Some teens embrace rodeo; others like heavy metal, Johnson said. Most will dabble in many different things before settling on likes and dislikes. Emo teens are no different than the rest, except they've chosen to focus on their emotions.

The dress — which for some can be disturbing — is both a reflection of those emotions and a way to identify peers, Johnson said.

"The teenage years are a search for identity," he said. "They want to know how they're different, but they also want support from peers who are similar."

As teens mature and leave home, most will grow out of the emo culture and leave their dark phases behind, Johnson said.

"Most kids run within the normal bell curve," he said. "The emo phase is transitional. As they get more input, they grow out of it. You don't see a lot of people in their 30s or 40s dressed like this."

Taking emo too far

The overwhelming emotions that often lead teens to seek out the expressive music and dark emo lifestyle can also be a sign of more serious issues, Johnson said. While most emo teens explore their emotions through poetry, art or music, others are attracted to the culture because of its focus on pain.

"Some kids need to be seen as different because they feel different," he said. "The emo culture brings out the negative, and it creates enough pain that it becomes addicting. When there's a lack of pain, they go looking for ways to experience more."

The danger, Johnson said, surfaces when teens surround themselves so completely with negativity and emotional pain that they turn to self-injury to heighten their feelings. Others turn to drug use or other illegal activities for the adrenaline rush and emotional highs.

"Sometimes kids today have to find a more extreme statement to get noticed," he said. "More extreme behaviors are accepted, so to be noticed, they have to find something really unusual to stand out from the crowd."

Self-injury usually comes into play when a teen experiences deep internal pain. The pain can stem from a traumatic event or from everyday stresses, Johnson said.

One major stress is rejection. When teens are rejected because of the way they dress or act, it becomes a rejection of who they are, Johnson said, and that creates awful pain.

"They cut themselves to change the focus from internal pain to external pain," he said. "It's part of finding an identity that's so outside the normal culture. They collect sources of pain that they can control."

Self-injury often is associated with the emo culture, but the two are not synonymous, Yazzie said. The teen knows many people who follow the emo trends, but not all are gloomy, he said.

"Most of the emo people I've met are more happy than other people," he said. "They have an identity, and if they're sad, it's because personal stuff happens and they start to identify with the music."

All teenagers are filled with angst, Nickels said, but focusing on it to the exclusion of everything else can be detrimental.

"They get so angry or so passionate that screaming is permitted and even encouraged," she said. "It's not simply expressive — it's overly expressive."

An open mind

Yazzie's mother, Cassius Yazzie, graduated from high school in 1980. Back then, she said, she wore parachute pants and styled her hair in a Mohawk.

It didn't bother her at all when her son started wearing black and growing out his hair.

"To me, it's clothes," she said. "It's his image. You have to look beyond the clothes and get to know him."

Cassius took Yazzie shopping for stylish black jeans and T-shirts and helped him with his eyeliner. When his taste of music changed, hers did, too.

"You have to be a parent," she said, "but that doesn't mean you can't understand your kids."

Instead of judging her son, Cassius asked about his changing tastes. He had this to say: "I'm being different toward what is true for me."

That was enough for Cassius, she said.

Yazzie plans to graduate this spring and pursue a career as an architect.

"It's possible I'll outgrow this," he said, "but there's still a part of me that will listen to that type of music, part of me that will wear black T-shirts."

The teenage years are the springboard into adulthood, and it's normal for people to hold on to certain things, Nickels said. The more extreme fads generally disappear with age, and she expects most emo teens will shed their dark sides.

"I think they're going to look back and wonder what they were doing," Nickels said. "But don't we all?"

Street Culture and What is Emo?

A potentially good article on street culture in Manchester features some spectacularly inaccurate statements:

Manchester Confidential - A matter of taste…and bile:
"A matter of taste…and bile
Sian Claire Owen explores the fractured music scene and finds individuality and manipulation

Musical history is littered with bloody musical genre clashes. Skinheads hated hippies, mods loathed rockers, and punks just spat at anything that moved. Hell, the minstrels and sonneteers were probably at each others throats back in the day."...

Far from the mod'n'rocker riots on Brighton Beach in the 60s, today's musical genres have reached a Zen-like state of harmony. Either that or today's musical landscape is blander than a Barratt housing estate.

"There's no animosity between different scenes," said Shaw. "There are a lot of good collaborations. Most people at BBC 6 Music happily mix between the best of the music styles. Although saying that, as a teenager I would never have listened to Goth or heavy metal. And still wouldn't, come to think of it."

Dream on... people in Lancashire are regularly beaten up even killed for looking different.

Meanwhile another article attempts to define Emo... and works out that much of what the average person understands about the term is nonsense:

Finding emo: It eludes a real definition
Wisconsin State Journal, WI - 11 Jan 2008

They might be your kids. For sure, they know all about emo and you do not. It is a well-known and common international youth subculture, a celebration of depression that, so far, is virtually invisible to most adults.

"For me, the most disturbing part of this emo ' phenomenon is the whole I hate my life, I want to die ' part, " says Chelli Riddiough, a junior at Madison West High School. "The I want to cut myself ' joke that 's not really a joke at all. Thanks to the rejection of forthright emotions, teenage depression is being dismissed as just being emo. "

Emo is a kind of music, and a kind of fashion style, and above all a kind of demeanor. It 's so well known among young people that they already see it as cliche. It 's verbal shorthand for "emotional. " If the term had been current a generation ago, humorous depressives such as Charlie Brown and Woody Allen would have been labeled emo. Except that today it 's not funny.

"I have a lot of friends that are truly emo, " says Alex Policastro, a 17-year-old student at the Madison Area Technical College. "I think emos are people that have had a tough life, or just a tough time, and either need help or should be helped. "

Searching for emo

Finding emo is rough, if you 're older. On the one hand, it 's so well known that if you run "emo " on the Google search engine, you 'll find 50.3 million listings. Compare that to, for example, 8.16 million for "Jesus Christ " or 1.94 million for "bill of rights. "

That 's perhaps not surprising; according to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the average age of the most active creators of Internet-content is 25. Emo seems to skew far younger than that, reaching down even into middle school.

On the other hand, we asked adults if they knew what emo was. We asked school psychologists, area high school and middle school counseling staffs, experts at the UW-Madison School of Education, and the Madison-based Briarpatch youth crisis intervention service. Some had heard of emo. No one could even define it.

So what is emo?

"Oftentimes, emo is used as a derogatory term, a sort of grow up and grow out of it ' statement, " says Riddiough. "For the most part, the term is typified as pessimistic, angsty, self-injurious and even suicidal. And sometimes homosexual, since male and female emo styles are pretty much the same. "

"I don 't know if I 'd really classify myself as emo, " says Jennifer Wilson, age 21, a Madison sales associate. But others have called her emo. "It 's kind of one of those things that outsiders label others as, if that makes sense. Like, a football player wouldn 't label himself as a jock. ' "

"I have been called emo before, " says Policastro. "I am not emo. If you want, you can categorize me as punk, maybe. "

Says Riddiough, "Nobody I know would gladly admit to being emo. It 's become such a joking term, such an insult, even, that few would seriously describe themselves as such. "

So despised is emo that one contributor to Yahoo Answers, an advice Web site, confessed to cutting himself. But that wasn 't the problem. The problem was that friends labeled him emo as a result. He plaintively complained, "I don 't get why ur emo if u cut. It 's stupid I think. "

Emo as a demeanor apparently arose in America. It spread via the Internet to Europe a few years ago. There, at least, it has begun to receive press attention. London 's Daily Mail reported that "teenagers are less equipped to manage strong emotions and a cult of suicide could have real and horrible consequences. " Kathimerini, a Greek newspaper, warns that psychologists there are concerned. In Australia, according to the University of Queensland 's Newspace, "Emo is the new vogue. "

A musical start

At first, emo was just music. "I believe emo came out of the hardcore scene -- metal plus punk, " says Jennifer Hanrahan, a host and DJ at the UW-Madison student radio station WSUM. "However, by the 2000s, emo had become more of a fashion style rather than a musical genre. "

Hanrahan says that acts such as Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional and My Chemical Romance all became known as emo, even though one could argue that there were differences in their music. Another famous emo band is the Brooklyn-based Rainer Maria, which started in Madison. The band has not responded to requests for comment.

Like individuals labeled emo, "The bands who are commonly called emo don 't appreciate the term, " says Hanrahan.

Still, emo as music was relatively non-threatening, and it therefore played on top 40-radio stations and music television channels, "and so became popular with white middle to upper-class pre-teens and teens, " Hanrahan says. It became commercial. "Due to its young and affluent audience, emo began to get a bad rap with the wider musical public, whether deservedly or not I can 't quite say. "

The music defined the message, and the message came to define a more or less uniform androgynous fashion sense. "Nowadays, emo is considered as a white teen wearing tight black jeans, heavy mascara, and a floppy hairstyle, " says Hanrahan. Every emo Web site agrees with the stereotyped portrait: bangs over one or both eyes, Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers and band T-shirts are signature emo traits. With the crystallization of outward style came a defined demeanor.

There has been teen angst as long as there have been teens, of course. We just keep coming up with different names for it; Romeo 's Juliet was only 13, after all. Before emo there were the black-clad "goths, " whose clothes and black and white make-up resembled that of television 's "The Addams Family. " Emo is very different.

"From what I 've observed, Goth is about being angry and trying to be different, " says Riddiough. "It 's about rebelling and, yes, wearing black. Emo is about being sad and emotionally weak. "

The emo world

If you 're an outsider, emo is, above all, easy to ridicule. You can visit www.TheEmoQuiz.com ( "The glass is: a) Half empty, b) Half full, c) Shattered in a million sharp pieces, d) Full of blood "). There are also online cartoons, mocking emo in an artistic style resembling the big sad-eyed kitten posters of the 1960s. One shows a weeping young man, and announces, "Emo is just an excuse for boys to act like girls. " Another shows an emo kid working on a poem, asking another emo kid, "What rhymes with razor blade? "

Another common Internet joke is, "I wish my lawn were emo, so it would cut itself. "

"As for the cutting thing, I don 't cut myself, " says Wilson. "I never have. I know people who have cut themselves that wouldn 't be classified as emo. ' I know people who are emo that don 't cut themselves. I think that it 's more of a stereotype than a fact. I wouldn 't say there isn 't any direct correlation, but then again the whole emo thing ' is a huge stereotype anyway. "

Still, sometimes emo can be a call for help.

"I have a male friend who used to be extremely emo, " says Wilson. "I once called him to ask what he was up to. He said, I 'm laying on the floor of my dark, cold basement listening to depressing music. I know, I 'm emo. ' "

"From my understanding, emo means emotionally disturbed, ' " notes Policastro. "I am trying to spread help to people who need it. "

Given that emo is most often an unfair stereotype label applied by others, is it necessarily bad?

"I think I definitely have certain emo characteristics, but overall, I 'm a happy person, " says Wilson. "The things that I would say about myself that are similar (to emo) are the fact that I love to express myself through things like art, writing, fashion and music. I dress a little less conservatively. I guess if you 're going by what emo ' is short for, emotional, ' then I suppose that could be true too. Everyone 's emotional. Maybe we 're all a little emo. "

Riddiough agrees.

"It means the manifestation of sadness and pain, " she says. "Everybody feels it. Everybody is emo. "

More media lies about goths and emos

A newspaper article insults a goth teen just for liking his friends!!

You silly Lotto!

Dec 9 2007 by Nathan Bevan, Wales On Sunday

NOW for a new weekly section called Well, Bloody Give It Back Then...

First recipient of the WBGIBT Award is £8.4m Lotto winner Jenny Southall from Newport.

Or, more precisely, it’s her teenage son Jamie who I’m naming and shaming for refusing to move from their pokey council house a mile away. Apparently, the young goth doesn’t want to leave his friends behind – besides, he’s probably only recently finished painting his entire bedroom black and has no doubt just perfected infusing his sheets with the rancid stench of fetid teenager.

Jamie, with that much dosh you can buy more friends, better looking ones, ones who don’t cover their faces with Mother’s Pride while listening to Fields Of The Nephilim records.

Last time I looked Britain was a free country people can wear as much or as little makeup or the clothes they want. If you don't like that well then move to Iran or another country where teenagers can be arrested for dressing in the wrong way or listening to the wrong kind of music.

In an article on the remake of the classic St Trinians fifties films is par for the course for the Daily Mail. Unless the film does portray emos as self-harming goths which I certainly hope it doesn't.

Meet the tribes of St Trinian's | the Daily Mail

6th December 2007

Modern girls: (left to right) Trustafarian (Juno Temple), Chav (Kathryn Drysdale), Geek (Lily Cole), The Emo (Paloma Faith), Posh Totty (Tamsin Egerton. Click ENLARGE to see the full profiles

There is a geek with granny glasses and knee-length skirt who is such a computer whiz she can mastermind a multi-million-pound art theft.

There's a chav Essex girl and a freakish creature with pink and black hair who is so emotional that her eyeliner is constantly running down her face.

"The actresses chosen to play the St Trinian's girls needed to be uncompromising, upfront, genuine, and most importantly independent minded, and this is exactly what we got," says director Oliver Parker...

"Girls at modern schools today are divided into gangs and cliques. By visiting a number we were able to plug into the mindset of today's girls and get a sense of which bands they were talking about, what cliques they had and what slang they were using."

"We went round to lots of schools to do our research including posh public schools and comprehensives,' adds co director Barnaby Thompson.

"After talking to the girls for ten minutes, what was interesting was that they all talked about the same things. So we have Chavs, Emos [emotionals - self-harming teenage Goths], Trustafarians, Geeks and Posh Totty in this film.

But hey this is the Daily Mail which printed one of the most inaccurate and stupid articles ever written on emo (and there is great competition for that particular award) in August 2006. Check out:

EMO cult warning for parents | the Daily Mail

Oh yes watch out for those fearsome emos...

The Emos - short for Emotional - regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths.

Although the look is similar, the point of distinction, frightening for schools and parents, is a celebration of self harm.

Emos exchange competitive messages on their teenage websites about the scars on their wrists and how best to display them. Girls' secondary schools have for some time been concerned about the increase in self harm.

One governor of a famous boarding school told me that it was as serious a problem as binge drinking, but rarely discussed for fear of encouraging more girls to do it.

Although it is invariably described as a 'secret shame', there is actually a streak of exhibitionism about it.

The internet has many sites dedicated to Emo fashion (dyed black hair brushed over your face, layering, black, black, black), Emo bands (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), Emo conversation (sighing, wailing, poetry).

Kerrang responded by pointing out the Daily Mail knew nothing about Emo. Anyone with a passing interest in youth culture could see the article was so stupid it was amazing. Emos=goths makes no sense what so ever as for the bands it lists as being emo well.

The interesting thing about the film is that it clearly is based on the real tribalistic divisions in schools which do result in conflict. Interestingly a recent initiative in Somerset deals with the same themes:

Kids teach adults a lesson
Weston & Somerset Mercury, UK - 5 Dec 2007

YOUNGSTERS dressed up as 'chavs' and 'emos' to help members of Nailsea's older generation understand more about youth culture.

Three pupils from Nailsea School, in Mizzymead Road, were invited to a Neighbourhood Watch meeting to try to improve relationships between the two generations.

Scott Davie, Libbi Cooper and James Daley donned drainpipe jeans, tracksuits and hoodies as they explained what members of different culture groups liked wearing and what their interests were.

The meeting was part of an initiative by Nailsea School and the Neighbourhood Watch group to try to breakdown barriers and stereotypes between the younger and older generations.

Nailsea School teacher, Dilly Taylor, said: "We are looking at ways of getting the two generations together, to get rid of some of the fear for the older people, and to encourage youngsters to be more conscientious in looking out for the older generation in their communities."

Members of Nailsea Neighbourhood Watch are now planning to give a presentation to youngsters at the school about the aims of their group.

Chairman Don Plevey said: "We want to develop a relationship between Neighbourhood Watch and schoolchildren because older people often perceive youngsters as some kind of threat, when they aren't.

"We are convinced that if we establish a relationship between youngsters in the town it will help prevent vandalism and other problems. We are also thinking of setting up a Watch scheme for youngsters."

Pupils have been thinking of ways to spend more time with older people in the community.
One of the suggestions includes inviting members of the group to the school cafe or meeting up with them in town to try to forge friendships. About 3,800 households in Nailsea belong to the Watch scheme and members meet at the United Reformed Church hall in Stockway North on the second Wednesday of the month at 7.30pm.

Number of people dying of suicide outnumbers those killed in wars - Pravda.Ru

More nonsense from Russia this time:

Number of people dying of suicide outnumbers those killed in wars - Pravda.Ru

30.11.2007
It is worthy of note that every real suicide is a critical demonstration of personal despair, whereas every demonstrative suicide is a potentially real one. Juvenile suicide is a much more complex phenomenon than it seems to be at the first sight. It is an open secret that the demonstrative suicidal conduct is typical teenagers, like other kinds of expressive behavior. In some subcultures, like Emo or Goth teenagers, for example, the marks of a failed suicide attempt (bruises or cuts) are viewed as high rank military insignia. Most often, a teenager tries to commit suicide not to simply impress his parents, but to overcome the fear of death. Suicidal behavior among young people may also be of imitative character.

Razor incident after Emo taunt

From such a short report it is difficult to tell what is going on here. The girl might just have a self harm problem and no interest in emo style or music given the popular stereotype. Was this the first time she had been taunted in this way or was bullying part of her life?

Girl arrested after slashing on school bus - Northwest Florida Daily News
Thursday November 29th, 2007

CRESTVIEW — A 12-year-old girl faces felony charges for lashing out at another student with a razor blade on Halloween. The incident happened on a school bus, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. The girl, a sixth-grader, told investigators she was upset at the other student for threatening to tell her mother that she had been cutting herself.

She became even madder when other kids on the bus began “calling her an ‘Emo,’” according to the report.

She said she lashed out at him with the blade but didn’t intend for any injury.
The boy’s jeans were sliced and his parent said his leg was injured. A deputy did not notice any visible wound the day after the incident. The girl was charged with aggravated battery and is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 26.

Emo panic hits Malta

Sound familiar.... look like one incident has generated a media bubble of lies and distortion. A few kids self harm and suddenly an entire genre of music is to blame. People self-harmed before emo was popular it is not some teenage fad but a serious condition.

Fear for emo kids

di-ve news -- 12 November 2007

ZEJTUN, Malta (di-ve news) -- November 12, 2007 -- 1320CEST -- Several Maltese teenagers are being drawn to a youth subculture which actively promotes self-harm. The latest teen fad is called 'emo', short for 'emotional'.

This is an angst-filled culture which is characterised by youths wearing dark attire, dying their hair black and having long black nails. Such teens are often negative about life and some of them even cut themselves. Such a phenomenon in Malta is a growing concern as incidences of teens inflicting harm on themselves are increasing.

A few weeks ago, a 12-year-old girl in a Junior Lyceum slashed her wrist with a knife in an all-girls collective blood pact and had to be hospitalised as she had lost a lot of blood.

However, the seriousness of the incident came to light after teachers discovered the scars of the other girls. What is surprising is that this angst-filled teen comes from a stable home and that she managed to hide her scars from her parents, who are both professionals. [Ed: A fact which is not surprising at all if you actually read ANYTHING about self-harm but hey journalists are busy people.]

After this incident, the students have been instructed to keep their nails short, while teachers are searching bags for knives and compasses. Parents are particularly concerned because the subculture is spreading steadily over the internet, and thus their children could easily come across the concept and get entangled into it.

[Ed. Is it just me or does this photo seem POSED? Possibly even sensational.]

An investigation made by www.di-ve.com uncovered a trail of internet-based local emo message boards on Hi5.

The Malta Union of Teachers president John Bencini said that the union was not informed about the case.

On their part, the Ministry of Education confirmed the story. However questions sent to the Education Department a month ago remained unanswered despite the numerous follow ups.

We asked if the problem was well-spread amongst Maltese students. We also asked what precautions were teachers encouraged to take and, if notwithstanding such precautions such a case does occur, what they must do.

Furthermore, we also asked if the girls involved in the incident had been counselled and monitored, whether access to internet was harmful to children and how could the parents deduct their children had embraced the subculture.

Education counselling service tackles emos in schools
by -
Local News -- 27 November 2007 -- 11:30CEST
The latest teen fad to spread across local schools is the emo sub-culture, which has generated concern following the reports that self-harm is actively promoted amongst the youths who are often characterised by anger and negativity.
A few weeks ago, www.di-ve.com exclusively revealed that one particular female student in a Junior Lyceum had to be hospitalised after losing a lot of blood when she slashed her wrist in a collective blood pact.

The concern over the incident had grown even more after teachers discovered the scars on the other girls.

The report was also picked up by various other local media, which followed up the story.

Meanwhile, www.di-ve.com caught up with an official spokesperson within the Ministry for Education, who confirmed that the incident took place, adding that immediate action had been taken accordingly in all the cases that had been reported.

“When a school notices that a student is having difficulty or experiencing a situation that is potentially harmful to their development, action is taken in various forms. One service that is offered is the Guidance and Counselling Service, where a student is followed by professionals and work is also done with the family.

”The school at times also refers students to outside agencies who may be able to give a more specialised psychological service if this is needed. Students are then monitored for any progress or regression that may occur,” the spokesperson said.

As yet, there is no scientific study that shows the extent to which the emo subculture has spread in the local schools, but the Ministry for Education has only received a few individual reports.

Such trends are common amongst adolescents, and new fads and modes of behaviours appear in schools from time to time.

Whilst pointing out that all schools have a trained counsellor who works on prevention and intervention, the spokesperson said that in those schools where the emo situation was felt to be present, parents and staff were given information on how to recognise the phenomenon, its consequences, how to handle such situations and where to refer for help through an information session that also included a power-point presentation.

Teachers are advised to consult with their Head of School or guidance and counselling team if they notice, have evidence or strongly suspect that a student is going through a particular difficulty or is in need for help, other than academic support.

“It is to be stressed that such trends often manifest deeper psychological or emotional trauma or difficulties, and what is important is to understand the core reason for engaging in such behaviour,” the spokesperson further told www.di-ve.com.

Given that the internet is probably the main source from where the emo subculture is being derived -- and therefore it is relatively easy for the students to come across and get entangled into it -- the spokesperson was asked whether access to the internet is harmful to children.

However, he dismissed such an argument and stressed on the need of educating students to evaluate and critically think about the consequences of their decisions and behaviour, including the way in which they use the internet.

”Like everything else in life, all tools can be extremely useful but may also be abused of. Medicine is a wonderful ‘tool’ for healing the human being; however, mankind has managed to abuse of this in the form of substance abuse. The internet is a wonderful educational tool, however, has also been manipulated and can be harmful if misused.

“The solution is not to remove internet access but to educate the responsible adults on how to monitor their children,” he concluded.

Emo under attack or attacking itself?

The same paper which told us Emos are under attack in Tasmania a few days ago said back in May that Emo is connected to self harm.

The Mercury: Fears for teens :

"HOBART teenagers are being drawn to a youth subculture which actively promotes self-harm. The Emo movement, which grew out of the punk movement in the 1980s, recently hit the national news when two Victorian girls who had links to the subculture committed suicide. The movement also made the headlines in March when South Australian police investigating the murder of 15-year-old Carly Ryan uncovered a trail of internet-based Emo message boards and websites involving bondage, suicide and drug use. Tasmanian Catholic Schools Parents and Friends Federation president Bill Button said parents were very concerned about Emo culture. 'I reckon the Emo culture is more prevalent than people realise or want to face and is becoming even more prevalent because of the internet,' Mr Button said. 'Parents are concerned because all of a sudden their child, if they have access to a computer, can turn into an Emo.' Department of Health and Human Services Community Resilience and Mental Health Promotion project officer Dion Butler said the popularity of the subculture was growing in Hobart.

But it is not unique to Hobart," Mr Butler said.

"It is also very strong on the mainland where often the term Emo is seen as an insult.

"Emo stands for very emotional, and so, Emos are seen by some to be very depressed individuals with a mental-health issue.

"The reality is that apart from the self-harm issue the Emo subculture is no different from any other youth subculture and is really about young people finding a place to belong," Mr Butler said.

"Indeed it can be argued that all youth subcultures have both positive and negative effects. For example, the sports culture is seen to be positive for youth, but to an extent it encourages drinking."

Mr Butler said the only real concern was the self-harm issue.

"I understand that some Emo groups require youth to cut themselves as an initiation -- if they don't cut, they can't join," Mr Butler said.

"However, self-harm is not an exclusive Emo practice. An alarming number of teenagers engage in it, but it does appear that teenagers who identify as being Emo are more likely to engage in self-harm because of the Emo culture."

Queensland psychiatrist Graham Martin, who started researching the Emo movement when a relative started dressing in their style, agreed there were positive and negative aspects to the subculture.

"We know that young people who are resilient and connected to a group are largely protected from behaviours like self-harm and suicide," Dr Martin said.

"So the fact young people are connected to some sort of group is positive. My concern is that this subculture is about the joining together of disaffected young people who are often angry and distressed about their lives. They are then in a position where they rely only on that group and don't seem to reach out to other avenues for help."

Dr Martin said his research, particularly online, had blown him away.

"What I found was an incredible mix of extraordinary information," he said.

"There was material that was fun, material that was very intellectual and material that was absolutely horrible -- like pictures of knives and wrists with dotted lines drawn on them."

Dr Martin said he feared young people who identified with the Emo subculture were at greater risk of self-harm.

"A UK study on the Goth subculture found there was a significantly increased risk for self-harm within members of this group.

"Emos become enraged with people who suggest they are similar to Goths -- they say the distinction is that Emos hate themselves and Goths hate everyone -- but, as the reported incidence of cutting behaviours is said to be a key feature of Emo culture, the risk appears to be there."

Dr Martin said parents should not panic. "Parents should see it as a sign their child feels they can no longer talk to them and make an effort to resolve that by really listening to what their child wants to say."

Dr Martin said the community should also be concerned that growing numbers of young people felt alienated from society.

"We have to provide an environment which lets these young people talk and be heard before this gets out of hand."

Fears for teens | Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania: "May 20, 2007 12:00am

Of course it brings up the infamous British Medical Journal article which did not prove "there was a significantly increased risk for self-harm within members of this group.[ie goths]"

It proved that in a small sample of Glasgow goth teenagers more had indulged in self harm at some point in their lives than other people in the survey. Most of them did it before they became goths. So you can argue that goth actually stops self harm. See Goth stops self harm

Plus half the stuff this expert looked at online was probably a joke. I mean a statement like "they say the distinction is that Emos hate themselves and Goths hate everyone" is just nonsense. I mean there are a number of silly anti-emo websites which claim they spend time cutting themselves constantly many are not by emos. It is just a stereotype, one that some emos promote themselves as well: either because they have a sense of humour and are doing it with a satirical intent or because they take themselves too seriously and use self harm as a fashion statement. This it must be stressed is a minority, for the majority emo is about community, music and clothes and they are sick of the connection to self harm.

As noted in earlier posts professionals have consistently noted self-harm problems cannot be confined to any particular sub culture. If it was then it would be easily solved in fact it can affect any person and their clothing style is irrelevant.

The real danger is in articles like this is they it can be used as justification by thugs. If you look at anti-emo rants online most of them claim emos need to be stamped out because they self-harm. The logic is brilliant: Emos self harm therefore you have a right to harm them.
Exactly the same route is being followed as what happened after Columbine which intensified the hassle goth and metal teens faced.

It seems the murder of Carly Ryan seems to have sparked off a whole moral panic in Australia. Needs further investigation.

Emo/Goth suicide/selfharm sterotype incorrect

The idea of the gloomy teen dressed in black cutting herself is an ongoing stereotype but a US report from a conference of experts dismisses this as a deceptive idea likely to distract people from the real problem:

Parents and school staff often have a perception of self-injury that is connected to listening to gloomy music and wearing black. The perception says if you skateboard or listen to emo band Dashboard Confessional, you are more likely to slice your arms with scissors.

If only it were that simple.

Out of context, singing along to Gerard Way, of rock group My Chemical Romance, and his "songs that make you slit your wrists," can seem new and troubling to parents who were never fans of Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, or the blues.

But saying self-injury can be contained within one clique of kids, one group of fans of one type of music, galls those who have been there. "The quiet ones? You can't tell," said the Mayfield girl. "It's hard to tell who's doing it or not."

Nor does the perception, however prevalent, hold water, say the experts. Those who self-injure can -- are -- also the jazz-band members, pre-mission Mormons, theater kids and cheerleaders. Poland said those who self-injure tend to be "likable, functional and intelligent kids, but they break down under stress."

Self mutilation: Some teens hurt themselves to deal with emotional pain

Pity those who made the Channel News telecommunications news report on a US survey announced this summer on security dangers on the internet for children didn't know this. Besides paedophiles and viruses the report on the survey warned parents that increasing numbers of children were visiting "gothic" websites with supposedly disastrous consequences. The report supposedly claimed that Emo is in fact a sub branch of Goth with rather than being entirely separate, as most goths and emos claim see quotes below:

Webroot online security report 2007 19/07/07

Webroot Software says its new research shows a disconnect between parents and their children regarding Internet usage.
The report which corroborates existing concerns regarding the online activities of children ages 5 to 17, uncovers a number of discrepancies among children's self-reported online activities versus what parents believe them to be. The report further discusses potential legal implications and security risks parents may face due to their children's online behaviour and best practices for ensuring a safe online experience for children...

* More and more young people are turning to websites celebrating 'gothics' and promoting self-harm - the most recent popular websites attracting a new cult of young gothics - the 'Emo' - for Emotional Goths.

The full report can be downloaded here:
http://www.webroot.com/resources/sois/excerpt.html

Yet the actual report doesn't mention anything about emos or goths at all.

Agony Advice on goths

Some interesting advice columns from the Mirror

Older boy's bad influence - Kids and Family - Your Life - Showbiz - Mirror.co.uk:06/09/2007

"Older boy's bad influence KIDS COLEEN NOLAN My daughter who's 14 has started going out with a 16-year-old lad. She's dyed her hair black, wears black make-up and has become moody and withdrawn. She's been talking about getting piercings in her ears. I'm worried she'll get into drugs. What can I do? Angie O'Connor London

Coleen Says: YOU need to start trying to be a parent. At 14 your daughter is still a child, lives in your house and must stick to your rules... With the clothes and the make up she's obviously testing out the Goth look. Tell her: "I'm letting you wear those clothes because you like them", but if you don't want her to have piercings then that's a no. If she does get it done, punish her. Your daughter needs to know that she can't push it."

IN THE DARK OVER GOTHS
Dr Miriam Stoppard 30/10/2006 Daily Mirror

Dear Miriam,

TEENAGER Rosie Webster (pictured below) went Goth for a while in Coronation Street and my daughter's done the same. She's in with a group who paint their faces white, dye their hair jet black and wear almostblack lipstick. You can hardly see her eyes for kohl. What's got into her?

A year ago she was blonde, bouncy and fun. Now she mopes around and hardly speaks. Should I be worried? She's been anorexic in the past.

Miriam says...GOTHS have a fascination with pain and death and while, for many, it's a passing sign of teenage rebellion, it's not always just posturing. A Glasgow study of 1,000 young people aged 11 to 19 revealed that, of those considering themselves Goths, nearly half had attempted suicide and more than half had self-harmed - far higher figures than normal where around 10 per cent self-harm and six per cent attempt suicide.

It's been suggested Goths emulate their icons or peers but the reverse seems true - most in the survey had begun self-harming long before becoming Goths, which makes you think vulnerable children are attracted to the subculture.

So keep an eye on your daughter and make sure she knows she has your support.

The 2006 Glasgow University Study strikes again.

2006 Glasgow University Study - Goth stops self harm

This study from Glasgow University in the British Medical Journal is regularly quoted by the media to demonstrate that goth makes peoples self harm.

Robert Young, Helen Sweeting, and Patrick West, Prevalence of deliberate self harm and attempted suicide within contemporary Goth youth subculture: longitudinal cohort study BMJ 2006 332: 1058-1061. [Download here]

In fact the article proves nothing of the kind as noted in an article on the report from a scientific source New Scientist:

Goth subculture may protect vulnerable children

• 00:01 14 April 2006
• NewScientist.com news service
• Gaia Vince

About half of teenage goths have deliberately harmed themselves or attempted suicide, a new study suggests. But joining the modern subculture – which grew out of the 1980s gothic rock scene – may actually protect vulnerable children, researchers say.

The study followed 1258 young people who were interviewed at ages 11, 13, 15 and 19. It found that of those who considered themselves goths, 53% had self-harmed and 47% had tried to commit suicide. The average prevalence of self-harm among young people in the UK is 7% to 14%. Self-harm includes behaviours such as cutting or burning oneself. And about 6% of young people admit suicide attempts. Some studies suggest the incidence is rising in society.

Researchers at University of Glasgow found that while most self-harmers started the practice at age 12 to 13, they did not become goths until they were a couple of years older, on average.

“One common suggestion is they may be copying subcultural icons or peers [when they self-harm], but our study found that more young people reported self-harm before, rather than after, becoming a goth. This suggests that young people with a tendency to self-harm are attracted to the goth subculture,” says Robert Young, who led the study.

Quick fix

“Rather than posing a risk, it's also possible that by belonging to the goth subculture, young people are gaining valuable social and emotional support from their peers.” But he cautions: “However, the study was based on small numbers and replication is needed to confirm our results.” Only 25 participants felt strongly associated with goth culture.

Self-harming, Young says, is a behaviour that people often employ as a mechanism to deal with negative emotions. “It may be used as a quick-fix. "Some physiological studies suggest, or are compatible with the theory that endorphins [brain chemicals that produce a feeling of well-being] are released after episodes of self-harm," he told New Scientist.

Just 2% of the adolescents in the study identified with goth culture, although 8% said they had identified with it at some point in their lives. But it is a strongly non-violent and accepting subculture, which teens may find offers a supportive environment.

Michael van Beinum, a psychiatrist for children and adolescents, who advised on the study, agrees: “For some young people with mental health problems, a goth subculture may be attractive as it may allow them to find a community within which it may be easier for their distress to be understood.”

The 1980s goth culture grew out of the post-Punk movement and underwent a revival in the mid-1990s. Central to goth belief is the black aesthetic – taking icons that society regards as evil, such as skull imagery, and making them beautiful.

Journal reference: British Medical Journal (vol 332, p 909)

Even beyond this there are problems with the research itself. The results may actually mean that goths are more ready to admit they have a problem with depression and self harm because the subculture is more tolerant.

It was carried out with one age group and in one area in Scotland. Given the frequent verbal buse and bullying goths suffer does this explain some of the results? More importantly as one comment pointed out: "What about the 90% of teenagers who self harm who aren't goths (73 of 81 people in this study)?"

This excellent comment on the BMJ website one of many sums up more problems:

Michelle Phillipov,
Postgraduate Student
Dept of English, University of Adelaide 5005

It is somewhat unexpected that BMJ would publish such an article, which attempts to determine traits associated with the Goth subculture—a grouping which potentially comprises of 100,000s adherents globally—based on a sample of only 15 individuals in a single locality.

While Goth subculture is the article focus, just two references are given, and only one of them academic. There is a failure both to consult other pertinent studies—including Wright [1] and Siegel [2]—and to frame the results with respect to existing knowledge. For example, while Young et al’s results show a significant prevalence of males (about 2:1) in the ‘Goth’ category, Hodkinson—the only academic reference on Goth cited by the authors (see Young et al, ref [5])—clearly states that the Goth subculture is comprised of equal numbers of males and females. The reluctance to address this inconsistency with respect to their own cited reference is not only a significant oversight, it also makes it impossible to determine whether the authors’ findings are the result of male over- or female under-identification as Goth, or if they are simply symptomatic of untenable sample size and study design.

In addition, while Young et al find females at risk of attempted suicide, the known suicide rate for the 15-19yr group in 2000 was 4 to 1 with respect to males (see Young et al, ref [1]). Hence, the results directly contradict what is logically expected.

Furthermore, it is notable that members of the Goth subculture practice self-harm almost exclusively by means of cutting, scratching and scoring, and not through more extreme methods such as punching or self- poisoning. However, the authors unwillingness to consider the context(s) in which cutting, scratching and scoring occur, along with their readiness to subsume potentially diverse practices into a single discourse of pathology, makes it impossible to draw conclusions about the meaning and effects of these behaviours for the Goth subculture.

While the authors seek to link cutting, scratching and scoring to depression, attempted suicide and psychiatric illness, these techniques can in fact be practised for a range of different reasons. For example, within some subcultural contexts, these practices are used to induce fine scarring in decorative patterns on the body; that is, they are used as methods of bodily decoration and adornment, much like tattooing or body piercing. Without an understanding of context, it is impossible to determine whether this is the case for the Goth subculture. However, the tendency for medical and mental health discourse to systematically misrecognise body modification as self-mutilation or self-harm has been noted elsewhere [3].

Unfortunately, studies like the current one, which adopts an epidemiological approach to assessing traits within subgroups, habitually seem to support prevailing popular stereotypes. Perhaps this explains the ready acceptance and promulgation of the findings, whilst disregarding the lack of substantiation and generalisability, as well as the serious methodological flaws.

[1] Wright R. I’d sell you suicide: pop music and moral panic in the age of Marilyn Manson. Popular Music 2000; 19: 365-86.

[2] Siegel C. Goth’s dark empire. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.

[3] Pitts V. Body modification, self-mutilation and agency in media accounts of a subculture. In Body Modification (Ed. Featherstone M). London: Sage, 2000, pp291-303.

Someone else pointed out statistical flaws:

I have enjoyed reading the paper and all responses. Here, there are few "statistical" commments. There seemed to be several flaws in the design and execution of this study.

1. are the results valid?

Authors don't give us clear description of how subjects were identified and recruited. Did they volunteer? How many refused to participate in the study? The researchers could simply have sampled the participants in such a way as to increase the chance of supporting their hypothesis. Cohort should be representative of a true population for study to be valid. Some researches use randomization procedure in cohort studies in order to choose sample, which is the most accurate picture of population.

2. Follow-up/attrition rate.

Follow-up in this study was probably long enough (8years). However, in 1994, there were 2586 participants, whereas by the year 2002/04 only 1258. Could those followed-up be a biased sample? Loss of participants may effect precision and power of the study. For example, in Table 3 under Model 1 Goth subculture there is wide confidence interval (4,42 to 45,39), which may point out to undepowered study (type II error).

3. Observer Bias?

Outcomes have been assesed using Voice-DISC. Participants were asked varies questions on: suicide, self-harm, identification with subculture. It is not mentioned how raters conducted the interviews, whether they used structured or semi-structured protocol, whether they were blind to the study's hypothesis. The more subjective rating is, the more important blinding becomes. The bias introduced by non-blinding is likely to overestimate findings. It seems that a decision of belonging to one subculture or another was rather subjective (participants' responses were assessed on a five point scale). All in all, no blinding, lack of structured interview, subjectivity can lead to observer bias.

4. Confounders

Reseachers did adjust for some confounders (sex, social class, etc) using logistic regression. However, as somebody has already pointed out, the list of potential confounding factors is long, inc physical illness, obesity, family hx.

5. Results

For prospective studies outcomes are best presented as a relative risk.One can comment then on prevalence or incidence of the disorder. In this study authors use odds ratio.

6. Study's applicability

Is this study applicable in different subcultures? Probably not. In Table 3, which shows relationship between self-harm and type of subculture, majotiry of results are statistically non-significant.

In conclusion,

In cohort studies a group of individuals is followed-up over a period of time. The individuals should be free of the outcome (here: self- harm/attempted suicide)at the beginning of follow-up. The cohort is defined by exposure status(here: Goth subculture), which should be found out before outcome is known. Cohort study measures whether exposure effects the incidence/prevalence of the outcome,i.e. whether identification with Goth subculture increases the risk of self-harm or/and suicide. Researches believe that yes. By reading and critically analysing this study, I have arrived at different conclusions.

The authors reply is interesting:

We were pleased that our paper generated a wide variety of comments. While some contributors raised specific points, others referred to more general issues relating to issues of definition, explanations and generalisability.

The definition of “Goth” is contentious, but covers a wide range of musical tastes, social groupings, and aesthetics. The most relevant distinction here is between contemporary (usually younger) “Baby, Bat or sometimes referred to as Mall (US)” Goths vs. “mature, real or Elder Goths” 1. Our paper, as is clear from the title, refers to younger Goths; the results may not apply to all Goths.

The range of comments in response to our conclusion, that both selection and influence mechanisms may be involve, reflect the lack of evidence on this issue. To highlight this, we drew attention in the press release following publication to the possibility that engagement with Goth subculture could have positive rather than negative consequences for some young people. Our contribution is a first step towards producing an evidence base to test this, rather than relying on media speculation.

Some contributors have suggested that the association between self- harm and Goth subculture may be accounted for by other factors. However this is unlikely, since we adjusted for the strongest and most relevant correlates of self-harm found in other studies of young people. Others have suggested that our results were not valid due to the small numbers involved. We would point out that our paper underwent a formal statistical review before publication. Further, while the media focused on the 25 young people who unambiguously identified as Goth, nearly 8% of our representative sample had identified with Goth subculture, in varying degrees of intensity, and were 3-4 times more likely to self-harm, than the other participants.

It has also been suggested that by adopting a quantitive approach we may have missed contextual factors (this is obviously true of any non- qualitative study), and that the high rate of self-harm found among Goths is a form of decoration, analogous to body modification. We dispute this on two grounds. Firstly, since those who self-harmed were asked why, we know that the majority, regardless of youth subculture did so to relieve anxiety, anger and other negative emotions. Secondly, while cutting could be interpreted as some form of subcultural display, such an argument is difficult to sustain in relation to attempted suicide.

Sadly as I will show in a later post the media ignored the authors intentions with the notable exception of the New Scientist.