‘Ghaziabad Triple Suicide Resulted From Isolation, Not Korean Craze’

Aayushi Rana, a digital investigator & research analyst, says the digital sphere offers a comforting bubble to distressed kids, and parents must know the signs. Her views:

Three sisters recently died by suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of their residential society in Ghaziabad. The media and Police were quick to describe the reason behind this fatal act as ‘influence from Korean culture’, fantasy dramas, K-pop etc. In my opinion, this convenient term ‘Korean influence’ or ‘Korean Craze’ oversimplifies what is actually a complex pattern among lonely beings of seeking emotional refuge.

The tragic episode isn’t about Korean culture being inherently problematic; it is about the vulnerable young finding solace in narratives that speak to them during a period of profound isolation. Online Korean content, comprising K-pop, dramas, animation etc seem to have offered something that resonated deeply with the three teenagers.

Korean storytelling mostly operates within collectivist family structures similar to Indian culture, but explores the tension between personal desires and family obligations with nuance and emotional depth. Male characters demonstrate what some call “soft masculinity” or emotionally expressive, vulnerable, and communicative. For young girls navigating their own emotional landscapes, often in environments where such expression isn’t modeled, this representation can feel validating and comforting.

However, the real issue here is alienation, not the content. These girls were withdrawn from school post-COVID apparently due to financial hardship, isolated and confined to their home, and living with parents who seem to be overwhelmed by their own hardships.

The digital world didn’t create their vulnerability; it merely filled a void left by the breakdown of their support systems. When children lose access to school, peer relationships and parental emotional availability, simultaneously, they will seek connection and meaning elsewhere. The digital sphere offers a comforting refuge.

This pattern is common in the contemporary era, but is often ignored, and goes unrecognized until a serious crisis strikes. The content these children consume becomes a scapegoat when the actual problem is systemic isolation, lack of dignified supervision, and the absence of healthy emotional outlets.

The father in this case was burdened with a debt of ₹2 crore, shame of financial failure, and other crushing burdens for a middle class family. When parents are in survival mode, their capacity for emotional attunement understandably diminishes. They genuinely believed they were doing their best by keeping a roof over their children’s heads and food on the table.

However, parenting requires more than physical provision. When you bring children into this world, you assume responsibility not just for their survival, but for their complete emotional and psychological well-being. The parents made a series of choices driven by financial desperation, withdrawing the girls from school, allowing them unsupervised digital access as a babysitter, then abruptly removing that access without offering alternative support.

Each decision is understandable in isolation, but together they created a dark and depressive storm of isolation, helplessness and dependency.

What the parents missed was that their children had developed an emotional eco-system in the digital world. When they confiscated the phones to pay the electricity bill, they weren’t just taking away devices; they were severing their daughters’ only remaining connection to joy, meaning and emotional stability.

The girls had already experienced one traumatic rupture after losing school and friends. The second rupture, without any transition or support, broke their back.

Modern parents, especially working parents, face a unique challenge. Their children are born in a technological world, and expecting them to exist outside this bubble is unrealistic. The responsibility lies in maintaining balance, sensitivity and awareness.

Some parents adapt well, staying respectful yet curious about their children’s digital lives, setting sensible boundaries, and spotting behavioral changes as signals that warrant attention. But this requires a bandwidth that most ‘parents in crisis’ often don’t have.

Outright bans on mobiles or digital networks, though politically appealing, aren’t the solution. Australia’s recent ban demonstrates this clearly. Teenagers report easily bypassing age verification through various means, using older siblings’ identification, exploiting flawed age-estimation technology, or, simply, by lying. However, certain perverse content, violence, pornography, abuse of various kinds etc, should be strictly regulated or stopped, as was the recent ‘Grok undressing’ episode.

Children need education about digital citizenship, boundary-setting, and recognizing when their relationship with technology becomes unhealthy. This education works best when it’s collaborative rather than punitive. Parents, teachers and elders need to understand that in today’s world, guidance requires both stepping in and stepping out, providing structure, stability and wisdom, while allowing children a dignified space to negotiate, process and develop their own judgment.

The triple suicide illustrates what happens when both individual parenting and systemic support fail simultaneously. These parents needed financial counseling, mental health support, and parenting guidance. The children needed continued schooling, peer interactions, and professional support for processing their family’s crisis. Instead, it seems, everyone was left to manage alone until tragedy struck.

Most importantly, we need to recognize that children’s digital behavior is often symptomatic of needs unmet in the physical world. When we address the symptom without treating the underlying condition, whether that’s isolation, trauma, or lack of emotional support, we solve nothing.

The question isn’t just how to keep children off certain platforms, but how to ensure they have a rich, fulfilling, creative, connected and supported lives that don’t require digital escape in the first place.

(Aayushi Rana has trained journalists and students, globally, in digital forensics, cyber security and safety, misinformation detection, and verification techniques. Her work centers on media literacy, socio-political research, and strengthening critical thinking in digital spaces)

As told to Amit Sengupta