Elsevier

Journal of Affective Disorders

Volume 190, 15 January 2016, Pages 370-375
Journal of Affective Disorders

Research report
Suicide and the Internet: Changes in the accessibility of suicide-related information between 2007 and 2014

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.10.028Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We analyse changes in the information available online, concerning suicide methods.

  • Using specific search terms, we analyse the content of the first ten sites to emerge.

  • Sites providing information on suicide methods has increased between 2007 and 2014.

  • Blog sites, discussion forums provide both peer support and information on methods.

  • Improving site moderation and guidance for ISPs and the media would increase safety.

Abstract

Background

Following the ongoing concerns about cyber-suicide, we investigate changes between 2007 and 2014 in material likely to be accessed by suicidal individuals searching for methods of suicide.

Methods

12 search terms relating to suicide methods were applied to four search engines and the top ten hits from each were categorised and analysed for content. The frequency of each category of site across all searches, using particular search terms and engines, was counted.

Results

Key changes: growth of blogs and discussion forums (from 3% of hits, 2007 to 18.5% of hits, 2014); increase in hits linking to general information sites – especially factual sites that detail and evaluate suicide methods (from 9%, 2007 to 21.7%, 2014). Hits for dedicated suicide sites increased (from 19% to 23%), while formal help sites were less visible (from 13% to 6.5%). Overall, 54% of hits contained information about new high-lethality methods.

Limitations

We did not search for help sites so cannot assess the balance of suicide promoting versus preventing sites available online. Social media was beyond the scope of this study.

Conclusions

Working with ISPs and search engines would help optimise support sites. Better site moderation and implementation of suicide reporting guidelines should be encouraged.

Introduction

Against a backdrop of rapid developments in the online environment over more than a decade, there have been a substantial number of cases of suicide in which the Internet has been implicated. These have included instances of cyber-bullying and cluster suicides (Birbal et al., 2009, Boyce, 2010, Becker and Schmidt, 2004, Cheng et al., 2012, Daine et al., 2013). Scrutiny of the Internet and social media has also emerged within academia, where a small number of empirically-based studies have been conducted looking at use of the Internet and its relationship to self-harm and suicide (Baker and Fortune, 2008; Barak, 2007; Biddle et al., 2012; Cash et al., 2013; Collings and Niederkrotenthaler, 2012; Dunlop et al., 2011; Gilat and Tobin, 2009; Harris et al., 2014; McCarthy, 2010; Mitchell and Ybarra, 2007; Sisask and Varnik, 2012). These studies have identified the potentially beneficial as well as harmful effects of the Internet on suicidal behaviour whilst emphasising its mixed content (Gunn and Lester, 2013, Hagihara et al., 2012, Westerlund, 2011, Yang et al., 2011), which allows individuals who are suicidal to access help but also the information with which to make a suicide attempt (Alao et al., 2006, Daine et al., 2013, Durkee et al., 2011, Sueki et al., 2014).

In recent years there have been a series of Internet search studies investigating the ease with which a suicidal individual can access information about suicide on the web and what they might find when searching for information about methods (Biddle et al., 2008; Till and Niederkrotenthaler, 2014; Pirkis et al., 2006; Recupero et al., 2008; Sakarya et al., 2013; Wong et al., 2013). These studies show that information on suicide is readily available; through news sites, factual information-based sites and within dedicated or ‘pro-suicide’ sites. However, the online environment is evolving and becoming more complex (Daine et al., 2013, Hitosugi et al., 2007). In particular, there has been an expansion in user-generated content, both social and information-based, such as personal websites and participation in interactive discussion forums and chat rooms, thus expanding opportunities to access and exchange information on a global scale. This is perhaps especially pertinent where site moderation is limited, or even absent.

To begin assessing the impact of such changes on online content, we replicated our Internet search study of 2007 (Biddle et al., 2008) examining what a suicidal individual might find on searching the web for information on suicide methods. As in 2007, the study reported here focused specifically on searches for methods of suicide rather than help or support, in order to establish specifically, what someone who is suicidal and looking for methods would find on the Internet. This will assist in addressing some of the concerns currently being expressed in the media and the public health sector (Gov. Report, DOH, 2014; Gunnell et al., 2012; Boyce, 2010; Barak, 2007). As well as directly comparing our findings with those obtained in 2007, we expanded our analysis to explore in more detail the content of the sites retrieved by focussing on additional themes such as: peer support, images, site moderation and help offered within discussion forums and blog sites. The study also took into consideration new and emerging methods of suicide that were being discussed online and which were reported to be increasing as methods of suicide, both in the UK and other parts of the world (Grassberger and Krauskopf, 2007, Howard et al., 2010; WHO, 2014).

Section snippets

Search strategy

We conducted Internet searches between February and March 2014 using the same 12 search terms as those in our previous study (Biddle et al., 2008): (a) suicide, (b) suicide methods, (c) suicide sure methods, (d) most effective methods of suicide, (e) methods of suicide, (f) ways to commit suicide, (g) how to commit suicide, (h) how to kill yourself, (i) easy suicide methods, (k) best suicide methods, (l) pain-free suicide and, (m) quick suicide. These were selected as terms a suicidal user

Results

We visited and analysed 480 web addresses (‘hits’) and 135 different sites (taking account of duplicate hits). This compared to 240 different sites from the 480 hits in our 2007 search.

The frequency and accessibility of hits in the two time periods is shown in Table 2. In 2014, 111 (23.1%) hits were for dedicated suicide sites, somewhat higher than the number in 2007 (90 (19%)), the main growth occurring in relation to hits describing methods without specifically encouraging suicidal behaviour

Discussion

Our updated search of the Internet for suicide methods showed that dedicated, pro-suicide sites were slightly more prominent amongst the hits returned in our 2014 search compared to 2007. Hits for prevention and support sites had reduced by nearly half, whereas factual information sites – many of which provide highly explicit ‘how to’ information on methods – had tripled. Information sites also typically ranked the highest in searches showing they are easily accessed. Google searches returned

Acknowledgments

We are extremely grateful to Mike Matthews for running the 2014 searches for this study. We also thank Rachel Holley, Jen Russell and Chris O’Sullivan for their comments during the planning of this study, and Rachel Holley for her comments on a draft of the paper.

References (48)

  • A.C. Yang et al.

    Association of Internet search trends with suicide death in Taipei City, Taiwan, 2004–2009

    J. Affect. Disord.

    (2011)
  • ...
  • A. Alao et al.

    Cybersuicide: review of the role of the Internet on suicide

    CyberPsychol. Behav.

    (2006)
  • D. Baker et al.

    Understanding self-harm and suicide websites: a qualitative interview study of young adult web users

    Crisis

    (2008)
  • K. Becker et al.

    Internet chat rooms and suicide, letters to the editor

    J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry

    (2004)
  • L. Biddle et al.

    Suicide and Internet

    Br. Med. J.

    (2008)
  • R. Birbal et al.

    Cybersuicide and the adolescent population: challenges of the future?

    Int. J. Adolesc. Med. Health

    (2009)
  • S. Cash et al.

    Adolescent suicide statements on MySpace

    Cyberpsychol., Behav. Soc. Netw.

    (2013)
  • K. Chan et al.

    Charcoal-burning suicide in post-transition Hong Kong

    Br. J. Psychiatry

    (2005)
  • Q. Cheng et al.

    Correspondence: opportunities and challenges of online data collection for suicide prevention

    Lancet

    (2012)
  • S. Collings et al.

    Suicide prevention and emergent media: Surfing the opportunity

    Crisis

    (2012)
  • J.M. Corkery et al.

    Two UK suicides using nicotine extracted from tobacco instructions available on the Internet

    Forensic Sci. Int.

    (2010)
  • K. Daine et al.

    The power of the web: a systematic review of studies of influence of the Internet on self-harm and suicide in young people

    PLoS One

    (2013)
  • S.M. Dunlop et al.

    Where do youth learn about suicides on the Internet, and what influence does this have on suicidal ideation?

    J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry

    (2011)
  • Cited by (55)

    • Changes in accessibility of suicide-related information on websites in Taiwan during 2016 and 2019

      2022, Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
      Citation Excerpt :

      Future research should consider using a shorter time span (such as one year) to examine the changes in the online environment. Second, because of privacy and technical issues, we could not access specific webpages on social media platforms or even the dark web, where circulating suicide-related information often goes undetected.1,2,27,28 Therefore, we were unable to provide an accurate estimation of the amount of pro-suicide information appearing on social media websites.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text