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Jaden Smith Survives Another Death Hoax During Suicide Prevention Week [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 11:12 PST, Sep 6, 2016

Jaden Smith has repeatedly been the victim of cruel death hoaxes. The first one targeted the young son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith roughly four years ago, reports The Mirror. In that instance, Jaden Smith was reported to have died in a skiing accident in Europe. He was only 14-years-old at the time.

This time around, the Jaden Smith death hoax reached a whole new level of cruelty. In late July, rumors that Jaden Smith had committed suicide began to swirl. Like many internet death hoaxes, the one involving the reported suicide of Jaden Smith took off like wildfire. Many of Jaden Smith’s fans were instantly heartbroken, believing that the newly adult heartthrob was dead and had taken his own life immediately after reading the headline. Many didn’t take the time to look into the story further.

In many instances, the irresponsible and totally untrue news that Jaden Smith had taken his own life hit his largely teen fans so hard that their mental health was compromised. At least one unwitting victim of the Jaden Smith suicide rumor took to YouTube to share how deeply the news of his death (by suicide) had impacted her emotionally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45thxApnS-Y

Before long, the rumors of Jaden Smith’s suicide began to die down. Fans began to realize that they’d been duped, and the rumor-investigating website Snopes even got involved in the fray, letting concerned folks know that Jaden Smith was alive and well and that rumors of his death had been greatly exaggerated.

Just about the time that people realized that the news of Jaden Smith’s suicide was nothing but a cruel hoax, in mid-August, rumors of his death began to circulate once again. That time around, the suicide rumors got even more dark and cruel, with a “good-bye” video from Jaden Smith to dad Will reportedly surfacing. In the video, Jaden reportedly admitted that he was going to commit suicide by hanging.

That time around, fans of Jaden Smith were duped one more time. The August Jaden Smith suicide rumor gained traction because it coincided to some disturbing rumors about Jaden’s personal life. At the time, there was a lot of talk that Jaden Smith’s girlfriend of about a year, the questionable Sarah Snyder, had cheated on Jaden. A photo of Snyder, allegedly in bed with a guy that wasn’t Jaden, was posted to Twitter (then deleted) by the alleged “other man.”

Once again, the rumors of Jaden Smith committing suicide were determined to be nothing more than a cruel hoax. In fact, the rumor coincided with his dad’s new flick Suicide Squad and Jaden Smith’s new Netflix series The Get Down so perfectly that people began to speculate that the suicide rumors might have been a publicity stunt started by Jaden himself. You know, to draw attention to his name and brand at the perfect time to draw the masses to his creative endeavors.

This week, the Jaden Smith suicide story ramped up again. This time, the rumors were so persistent that his sister Willow and other family members reportedly began to receive condolences from grieving fans and loved ones, people shocked to learn about Jaden Smith’s death, which again didn’t happen.

The current Jaden Smith suicide rumors and all of the emotional trauma they inflict on fans of the popular star and social media darling have coincided with National Suicide Prevention Week, an annual event designed to bring attention to the pervasive epidemic of suicide in America, particularly among the nation’s youth and young adults, reports WFBO.

In 2016, Suicide Prevention Week runs from September 5 to September 11, and experts are using each day of the week to shed light on suicide, teach coping methods, and remove suicide from the shadows of stigma.

The fact that the most recent Jaden Smith death/suicide rumor ended up happening in the midst of Suicide Prevention Week is the perfect opportunity to point out that suicide is no joke. It shouldn’t be used as a publicity stunt or a marketing ploy. When the adoring fans of someone as influential and beloved as Jaden Smith hear the news that their favorite star has committed suicide, it inflicts unimaginable emotional damage, and the suicide hoax could even, theoretically, be responsible for triggering more suicides.

Jaden Smith is alive and well. Still. He’s living his life. He’s not dead. He didn’t commit suicide. By all accounts, he’s still living and loving it up with his girlfriend, Sarah Snyder. But for many people, suicide isn’t a hoax or a rumor or a news headline. As The Huffington Post reports, someone in America kills themselves (for real and forever) roughly every 15 minutes. The vast, vast majority of victims of suicide are not simply victims of Internet cruelty, like Jaden Smith; they are victims of their own anxiety, depression and other forms of mental illness.

So while the world can rejoice that the latest news of Jaden Smith’s death/suicide is (yet again) totally untrue, people should also take a moment to consider the real social harm that results in suicide. Even rumors of suicide, such as in the case of Jaden Smith, can be a trigger to some.

[Photo via Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]

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