Youngsters caught out playing lethal game

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Police and social agencies are working with South Auckland schools and parents after a group of young people were caught playing what is thought to be a lethal choking game.

The Herald understands four young people from different schools were found by family members trying to choke themselves at the weekend.

The incidents are believed to be part of a "choking" or "fainting game" where a person attempts to self-strangulate.

Those separate incidents follow the deaths last week of a 13-year-old-girl and an 11-year-old boy who were both found dead in the backyards of their homes.

Although it is not clear if those deaths are related to the choking incidents at the weekend, it is understood a text message has been circulating among young people at several South Auckland schools.

The text message gives details of exactly how to go about the self-strangulation.

Police, Child Youth and Family and Ministry of Education trauma response specialists are working with the schools.

Counties Manukau police would not comment last night and a Child, Youth and Family spokeswoman would say only they were working to support the families involved.

It is expected more details about the weekend incidents will be released today.

In September, a Bay of Plenty coroner allowed details of the death of a 12-year-old boy to be published because he felt their use as a warning to parents outweighed concerns of "copycat" deaths.

The boy was found dead in his room by his mother who said it was "very much out of character" for her son to try anything like it. She told the Bay of Plenty Times she didn't want other parents to go through what her family had.

"He was highly intelligent and if this tragedy can find its way into my son's world, then it can find itself into anybody's. No one is exempt.

"I don't want another parent to ever have to go through what we have had to."

Coroner Wallace Bain ruled the death was not the result of suicide, or an attempt at it, and the chances this "outstanding young man" was experimenting playing the "choking game" was something not able to be ruled out at this stage, the paper reported.

The deceased's mother said their research had since revealed her son fitted the profile of someone at risk of playing the choking game - he was a high achiever, a homebody, played by the rules, did not engage in illegal activities such as underage drug and alcohol use and was in the vulnerable age group, the median age being 13 years.

Her son did not have a mobile phone or access to the internet and, therefore, the idea must have come by word of mouth. That meant it was vital parents talked to their children about the risks, she said.

The problem has also been recognised in Britain, France, Canada and the United States. Earlier this year the Department for Children, Schools and Families in Britain said it was watching the situation closely.

Although no research had been completed it was thought as many as 86 young people in Britain may have died that way.