Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat said yesterday he would look into the content of "Sai Sok" TV drama after a girl aged six reportedly copied a suicide scene and hanged herself. The minister urged all TV channels not to broadcast inappropriate scenes.
If that was the case, he would ask drama producers and TV station executives to strictly watch out for and to not air inappropriate content - such as obscene images or others that might affect national security or morality, which could be copied by youths. The ministry's authority in such matters covered films and videos, not TV dramas or stations, so he urged responsible agencies and TV executives to consider these issues.
Nipit suggested TV bosses provide a warning note that dramas needed a parental warning many times or while shows were being aired. He said dramas not suitable for audiences aged under-13 should be shown after 9pm as many children were in bed by that time. He also urged parents to advise their kids about inappropriate content while they watched TV dramas.
The six-year-old girl hanged herself on Thursday evening Nakhon Sawan's Lat Yao district - to demonstrate to her twin brother the suicide scene she saw on the TV drama. The girl was pronounced dead on Friday at 3am.
The family said they would not pursue legal action against anyone but urged the media to be stricter about inappropriate content on programmes.
The family went yesterday to collect the girl's body from a morgue. They urged police to inspect the scene again, as they believed their daughter's death was an accident rather than a suicide, arguing that a six-year-old wouldn't know how to tighten a rope to undertake such an act.