A coroner has warned about the dangers of unrestricted internet access after a teenager died following what was described as a likely “obsessive spiral” of viewing violent and sexualised online material in the weeks before his death.
According to a report by Nadine Roberts of Stuff, the teenager’s body was found on the morning of October 5, 2024, a day after he failed to return home from an evening walk. Coroner Michael Robb ruled the death was self-inflicted, though the legal threshold for suicide was not met.
Any identifying details about the teenager and the manner of his death have been suppressed.
“This avoidable death represents an example of the dangers of open internet access,” Robb said, using the case to highlight concerns around unrestricted online exposure for young people, Nadine Roberts of Stuff has reported.
According to the coroner’s findings, the teenager spent time with family and friends on the day he died and showed no outward signs of distress, mental illness, or suicidal thinking. He was described as future-focused, physically active, and closely connected to his family, with plans for upcoming trips and activities.
On the afternoon he went missing, the teenager met his father, who was walking a dog on a nearby beach. As his father headed home, the teenager said he would continue walking the dog for a while. When he did not return that evening, a search was launched, as reported by Nadine Roberts of Stuff.
The dog later arrived home alone, but the teenager’s body was not found until the following morning by a member of the public assisting in the search.
Police investigations found no evidence of third-party involvement, and a post-mortem examination confirmed the death was self-inflicted. However, Robb said the legal test for suicide, which requires proof the deceased intended to die, had not been satisfied.
“What remains less than certain is what he was thinking at the time,” Robb said, noting the absence of despair, mental health crisis, or known stressors typically associated with suicide, Nadine Roberts of Stuff has reported.
Instead, the coroner identified a direct correlation between the teenager’s actions and a pattern of disturbing internet searches. Police analysis showed the teenager had been searching for violent and sexualised material involving asphyxiation, with the frequency of searches intensifying in the weeks before his death.
“In reviewing (the teenager’s) internet searches, the officer identified multiple searches for pornography in connection with various acts of bondage or violence, extending to torture, and death,” as quoted by Stuff.
Data from the teenager’s phone showed he searched for explicit material daily, and sometimes multiple times a day, between September 17, 2024, and October 4, 2024.
“I find that the most negative impact on him, and consequently the matter with the greatest potential to impact on his mood, related to his internet searches… I find there is a direct correlation between the actions that he took which resulted in his death, and the nature of his internet searches,” Stuff has quoted.
Robb said young people could easily be drawn into harmful online material they had “no capacity” to properly understand or contextualise.
“What is real, what is fictional, what is normal or not normal can become blurred, desensitising or normalising through the watching of what appear to be real videos can have significant negative impacts, particularly on a child or adolescent,” he said, Stuff has reported.
“In my assessment, that is likely what occurred for (the teenager), and he was likely unaware of the nature of the impact on him,” as quoted by Stuff.
The coroner recommended continued education for families and stronger safeguards, particularly in public spaces that offer open Wi-Fi access.
“I acknowledge it can be difficult to imagine what the potential harms are, what might be searched, what might spark interest in the young, but in my view (the teenager’s) avoidable death represents an example of the dangers of open internet access,” Stuff has reported.
The teenager’s family declined to comment.
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