Editorial
The internet and suicide: A double-edged tool

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2007.04.009Get rights and content

Abstract

Many physicians are unaware of the power of the internet. In an era of an empowered public and patients, the internet may be a more powerful determinant of health-seeking behaviour than medical opinion. In the same way, it may provide more information for self-harm than was ever available to the public domain in the past. The internet is effective across cultural and geographical boundaries. In addition to reporting and romanticising suicide, it has a significant impact in assisting and promoting suicide. It provides services and information ranging from general information to online orders of prescription drugs or other poisons that bypass government regulations and custom controls. This bridges the gaps of locality and accessibility, which previously formed a natural divide in selecting the means of suicide. In addition to these negative effects, there is a vast potential to harness these properties to a beneficial effect. The wide acceptance of the internet makes it a powerful tool for recognition of the at-risk individual, for preventing suicide and supporting survivors, with chat rooms taking the place of telephone help lines. In an information age, it is vital for physicians to use all available means of informing and empowering the public and patients. The internet also has a role in training, providing accessible self-help sites for suicidal persons and web-based prevention services, all of which remain sadly under-utilised. The challenge to physicians of the 21st century is to harvest the internet in a beneficial manner.

References (28)

  • K. Kim et al.

    Internet addiction in Korean adolescents and its relation to depression and suicidal ideation: a questionnaire survey

    Int J Nurs Stud

    (2006)
  • D.M. Stone et al.

    Public health training online: the National Center for Suicide Prevention Training

    Am J Prev Med

    (2005)
  • J.M. Bertolote et al.

    Suicide attempts, plans, and ideation in culturally diverse sites: the WHO SUPRE-MISS community survey

    Psychol Med

    (2005)
  • E. Etzersdorfer et al.

    A dose–response relationship between imitational suicides and newspaper distribution

    Arch Suicide Res

    (2004)
  • D.T.S. Lee et al.

    Burning charcoal: a novel and contagious method of suicide in Asia

    Arch Gen Psychiatry

    (2002)
  • D.T. Lee et al.

    Charcoal burning is also popular for suicide pacts made on the internet

    BMJ

    (2005)
  • A. Frei et al.

    The Werther effect and assisted suicide

    Suicide Life Threat Behav

    (2003)
  • D.P. Phillips

    The influence of suggestion on suicide: substantive and theoretical implication of the Werther effect

    Am Sociol Rev

    (1974)
  • K. Jonas

    Modelling and suicide: a test of the Werther effect

    Br J Soc Psychol

    (1992)
  • A.O. Alao et al.

    Cybersuicide: review of the role of the internet on suicide

    Cyberpsychol Behav

    (2006)
  • http://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/~ingvar/methods/poison.html (accessed 30 Jan....
  • K. Becker et al.

    Parasuicide online: can suicide websites trigger suicidal behaviour in predisposed adolescents?

    Nord J Psychiatry

    (2004)
  • Sundararajan Rajagopal

    Suicide pacts and the internet

    BMJ

    (Dec 2004)
  • D.R.J. Arachchillage et al.

    The role of the Internet in facilitating yellow oleander poisoning and in providing effective treatment

    Eur J Int Med

    (2007)
  • Cited by (52)

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

      2022, Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
      Citation Excerpt :

      Information on suicide methods and messages encouraging suicide are readily accessible online2,3 whereas online resources such as mental health guidance may have the potential to bridge barriers to conventional mental health care.1,4,5 Known to be a ‘double-edged tool’, the internet offers both protective and harmful information.6 Furthermore, the proliferation of user-generated websites such as personal blogs and discussion forums as well as that of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Weibo has further enabled the acquisition and exchange of suicide-related information on the internet.1–3

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

      2016, Journal of Affective Disorders
      Citation Excerpt :

      However, as with other suicide-related web-based material, we found that many of these also contained exchanges that could encourage or facilitate suicidal behaviour. Deriving policy actions is therefore highly complex since strategies must manage a balance between protecting positive elements contained within the web, reducing the more harmful content that is also easily available (Niezen, 2013; Tam et al., 2007; Durkee et al., 2011), and also protecting the rights to freedom of expression. Potential approaches could include: greater site moderation, including by site users themselves to restrict harmful material and ensure greater support for those most at risk; working with ISPs and search engines to optimise supportive sites; and expanding the application of media reporting guidelines on suicide to also encompass web material.

    • Cybersuicide: Online-Assisted Suicide

      2023, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text