Warning on Internet-inspired Choking Game
The parents of a 15-year-old Gold Coast schoolgirl who died from an Internet-inspired choking game on Oct. 3 warned that the U.S. fad has spread to the country and is deadly.
Michael Corthals, the father of the teen victim Abigail, said the game has killed dozens of American teens.
"This is a parent's worst nightmare and we don't want it to happen to anyone else," he also said, according to Courier Mail. "Parents have to be aware and open with their children."
Corthals added, "Kids think they are invincible and she didn't realise that the thrill could kill her. It's a silent killer too. There was no warning."
Corthals and his wife Francoise found their daughter slumped in her bed and thought she committed suicide. But investigators found text messages in her mobile phone and in her MSN account that she was playing the game before she died.
The game popular among teenagers involves choking one's self to get a high. The feeling of euphoria happens when the brain is deprived of oxygen.
Griffith University suicide expert Professor Diego De Leo had warned that the game is extremely dangerous.
"People are under the impression that they can control and dominate their reactions which is badly wrong. When you start becoming unclear in your thoughts, you clearly have no control," De Leo said, according to Courier Mail.