A distraught father has blamed suicide chatrooms on the internet for the death of his 20-year-old son. Philip Cranmer, from Shirley, Solihull, hanged himself last September after logging on to suicide chatrooms on the internet for tips about how to die. The student, who told his parents he hoped to go to film school next year, had secretly planned his death for months and made a suicide pact with another man he had met online. Speaking outside Birmingham Coroner's Court, his devastated parents said that without suicide chat-rooms their son would still be alive. Philip's father, Roy Boffey, a retired teacher and hospital chaplain, said: "Our son was able to access so much information and have so much communication with people who were thinking along similar lines to him. "If he had not had this access he may well not have taken his life. He would not have had sufficient details or support from people on the websites to carry out the act. We would have been able to help him. "It is so easy for people who are vulnerable to get into these sites and what people don't realise is how difficult it is to get out of them." Mr Boffey, who has three other children, called for suicide chatrooms to be closed down and said he wanted to warn other parents of their dangers. "Our son was a normal young man, who had taken his A-levels at Solihull College and appeared to be making plans for the future. Now we have become the victims of these sites," he said. The inquest was told that Phillip was left alone while his parents and two sisters were at work on September 8. John Edwards, a neighbour, said he had heard cries of anguish at 4pm when Mr Boffey had found his son's body behind the garden shed. After Mr Cranmer's death, a message appeared on the family computer from a man named Steve, saying that he was about to commit suicide. The pair appeared to have made a suicide pact. The inquest heard police discovered emails dating back six months from friends the student had made online in suicide chatrooms. Mr Boffey said: "We want to flag this up as a national issue. It says something about the society in which we live that people can get this kind of information." Mr Boffey and his wife Barbara, a teacher, demanded tighter scrutiny and regulation of the internet, although they said they recognised that the web did much to help people in need. Since their son's death, Mr and Mrs Boffey have written to the Home Office to demand an urgent investigation into suicide chatrooms. Professor Semi Oyebode, who is head of the psychiatry department at the University of Birmingham, said Government and internet service providers should take more responsibility for the web's contents. He said: "We know that the most effective way of controlling suicide rates is by controlling methods by which people kill themselves. "This means that internet sites which give information about tried and tested methods are problematic. There should not be free access to web pages where people are egging each other on to kill themselves. "This case also highlights the rising rate of young men who are committing suicide. Vulnerable people may well be turning to these web pages in desperation." Coroner Aidan Cotter recorded a verdict of suicide. He said: "There are many cases where people die from hanging and it's possible to conclude that it was an accident and they were making a cry for help. "In this case Phillip used a tree and his feet were several feet off the ground. If someone suspends themselves like that it seems to me like a deliberate intention to die." | 
