KOZHIKODE: The teenagers, especially girls, exposed to too much of internet and the social media are exhibiting behavioural problems leading to depression and even suicides, according to psychiatrists and social activists. They receive at least two to three cases of disturbed children aged between 15 and 20 every month, and 75 percent of them are girls. Psychiatrist Dr P.N. Suresh Kumar said that the root cause of personality disorders was disturbed families.
“These children mainly come from broken families, separated and alcoholic parents and they show signs of mood swings and are generally aggressive in nature. Compared to depression, these symptoms are hard to treat,” said the doctor. He added that almost all the government and private hospitals in the city now have separate departments for psychiatry mainly dealing with the issues of teenage girls, who are lured into honey traps and even being used as carriers.
According to advocate P.P. Sapna, these girls create a headache for the shelter homes, when they persuade other inmates to jump homes and commit crimes. “There are many examples and the parents of the teenagers, both girls and boys, have this fear. There are case of girls, who were victims of repeated sexual abuse and taken to homes, but there they behave like a connecting link to the accused outside. We do not have good correction homes to bring them back to normal life,” she said.
