NEWS: Daily Telegraph - 14/04/08 'Dicing with death for cheap thrill'

Dicing with death for cheap thrill
By Bruce McDougall, Education Reporter
April 14, 2008 12:00am

SCHOOL students are dicing with death by playing a bizarre and dangerous game in which they partially strangle themselves to get a "high".

Teenagers claim the Choking Game, in which they become semi-asphyxiated, enables them to achieve an hypoxia-induced euphoric state.

They are said to suffer a partial or complete loss of consciousness brought about by the intentional deprivation of oxygen to the brain for a short period.

Doctors yesterday warned families about the dangerous behaviour while child psychologists and academics said they feared Choking Game videos posted on the internet could entice teens or even younger children to experiment. One site attracted 83,000 hits.

The practice - also known as the "pass-out game", "space monkey" or "trip to heaven" - is believed to be responsible for the deaths of least 82 mostly male children in the US between 1995 and 2007.

Adolescents psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said the Choking Game was "incredibly dangerous".

"Children get bored, there is not much stimulation in their lives and they look for a cheap thrill," he said.

Dr Carr-Gregg warned parents not to ignore the problem before urging them to discuss the dangers about such behaviour with their children.

"The one thing I would advise parents to do is discuss it with their children . . . let them know that it is something they shouldn't be doing," he said.

University of Western Sydney school of psychology's Valentina McInerney also warned that children were subjected to potentially dangerous behaviour on the internet.

"This mirrors a pile of things that kids do and post on the net," she said.

"I found stuff on YouTube but most Australian kids think it is idiotic."

Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick emergency director Matthew O'Meara said no cases had come through the doors "but that doesn't mean it is not happening".

"Kids are getting to the brown-out stage but there is a fine line between a euphoric state from lack of oxygen and completely blacking out," he said.

"If you are on your own when you become unconscious you cannot do anything about it and that is risky."

Click to expand...

This_is_my_alias said:

didnt michael hutchence play this game?

Click to expand...

Doooofus said:

Let's outlaw children.

Click to expand...

Doooofus said:

Let's outlaw children.

Click to expand...