Jim: Perhaps the policy is to try to prevent copycat suicides by other children. Or perhaps it's to try to prevent being sued by the parents of some child who plays with a gun (and shoots himself) because he'd heard about that "other kid" on the news.

Perhaps the parents requested that there be no news stories about the death (depending on how much influence they have in local society). But the cause of death is often not mentioned in newspaper death notices, particularly if the death is a suicide. When my second cousin committed suicide by stepping in front of a commuter train, that little detail was left out of the death notice by the family.

I agree with your statement that "there are some crimes (and accidents) that people would try harder to prevent if they were given more publicity." For instance, I'm glad that rape is no longer a crime that's not considered "polite" to talk about, so that women can now get the information they need to obtain physical and psychological treatment and to gather evidence so that the rapist can be convicted.