http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=174512007

Kids sometimes aren’t too bright. Doug

As far as saddam, he truly was an evil man. My father worked in Iraq over 30 years ago and he told me horror stories about him at that time. I am no one’s judge, but I think it would behoove
the American justice system (I use that term lightly) to use hangings instead of keeping people on death row for years -costing citizens millions of dollars -during which time the inmates are fed,
given dental and medical help, publishing books and learning a trade. I know many folks
who can’t even afford any of these things!

I disagree; whether they are at an impressionable age or not, it is not a strong possibility. especially when you consider how the suicide rates in Canada alone are pretty high for children 10-24 years of age. it’s the 2nd cause of death in fact for that age group (http://www.canadiancrc.com/Youth_Suicide_in_Canada.htm)

think of it logically; 3 random children, *sometime* after watching the execution (think of the things that could have occured before watching the clip, and from that time to their actual death) ended up killing themselves by using such a method. there is an extremely high likelihood that other variables influenced their act of suicide, including their own inner motivations that have probably existed long before watching the saddam video.

also, if you consider how they know who saddam is (bad guy=deserves to be put to death by law) you’ll find it to be nonsensical to attribute their death to viewing his exection. they simply wanted to die. watching the execution only acted as a primer (through “priming”) to the method that they chose to utilize.

no child would say, after watching the video, “oh hey, look at how he died. let me go try that hanging thing to see what happens to me.” no. (normal) kids would be afraid of the memory of the noose alone. the video could not have encouraged them to hang themselves simply because they were at an “impressionable” age. especially when you consider the sheer amount of children (in the world) who have had the chance to watch it. out of all children that could have possibly watched the video, 3 killed themselves by hanging at some point after watching the execution.

we know nothing about these children (emotional/mental stability, iq, etc.), but we know that it is a POSSIBILITy that seeing the video influenced them to USE hanging as a method TO kill themselves, which is different from simply experimentation with the noose.

again, no room for: “this video may cause children who watch it to hang themselves to death”

As far as inferring causation, well, it’s not technically possible to be sure about it, but I’d say that given the young impressionable ages of the kids I would say it’s a strong possibility.