Should suicide searches be blocked?
A UK MP wants internet providers to block suicide-related web searches.
Image credit: Simon Lesley, flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/simonlesleyphotography/3054117715/)
Willie McCrae, an MP from Northern Ireland, is calling on UK ISPs to block web searches relating to suicide and block access to websites that describe suicide methods. He planned to raise the matter in the House of Commons this week.
“Everything in our power should be done to tackle this,” McCrae told the BBC. “Suicide is a reality that has gone through every section of our community.”
This is not the first time that such action has been considered in the UK. Last month, there were calls for websites that promote suicide to be taken down after the suicide of 15-year-old Tallulah Wilson who, prior to her death, had visited a website featuring self-harm. The Telegraph reported:
Stephen Habgood, chairman of Papyrus, a charity that works to prevent youth suicides, accused successive Government Ministers of failing to act on promises to tackle suicide sites.
He said the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) should treat internet forums promoting suicide in the same way as they do websites hosting child abuse images.
“I think that they ought to take down those sites that encourage and promote suicide because they are just as pernicious,” he said.
Suicide is indeed a serious problem. According to World Health Organization’ estimates, one million people died due to suicide in the year 2000 and it’s one of the three leading causes of death among people aged between 15 and 34. Here at home, according to Statistics Canada, close to 4,000 Canadians choose to end their own lives each year, including about 200 people under the age of 20.
It’s desperately sad. And, alarmingly, there are websites that do promote suicide and self-harm. In an August 2012 article entitled 10 of the most disturbing communities on the Web, The Next Web’s Joel Falconer had this to say:
Around the world, hundreds of teen suicides have been connected with involvement in pro-suicide communities. Tim Piper, a 16 year old who hung himself in 2002, was an early case. Rosie Whitaker ended her life in front of a train just last month [...] Others have opted to end their lives on webcam with the world watching, most notably the case of a Florida teenager who intentionally overdosed in 2008.
After so many cases it is impossible to argue that these sites are just information presented in the name of free speech, and do have devastating effects.
Websites and social networks are, however, now starting to put measures in place to address the problem. Facebook, for example, enables people to report suicidal content and Tumblr recently announced a new policy in relation to blogs that promote self-harm.
What do you think? Can we rely on the web to self-police or should we legislate to censor websites that promote suicide or self-harm? And would a block on such content actually help prevent suicides?
[Mental health issues such as anxiety and depression can lead to suicide. Help is available. Please don't ignore the signs. - Ed]
I thought we lived in democracy? While assistance should be in provided for those who attempt suicide to bring attention to their plight ( who are basically looking for help ), there are sane, mature adults, who are sick and tired of unsolvable, overwhelming problems (e.g. chronic pain), and as a result want to quicken the inevitable.
We all have to die. Suicide and euthanasia have been a part of life since the beginning of time, and aren’t even condemned from a religious perspective: http://www.acu-cell.com/suicide.html
Society does not have the right to impose the will of a few self-righteous zealots by preventing suicide information from being available over the internet. Yes, some people do benefit from suicide prevention, but there are others, who are definitely better off dead.
Agreed! Calls for banning knives, razors, matches, ropes, windows, exhaust pipes… anyone?
Interesting how some people believe they know what’s best for everyone else! Instead of censoring the internet, get rid of the bullies, and preserve the bullied. However, free will is a democratic right, so the choice to commit suicide should be my own, and not depend on someone else’s approval.
What do you define as inevitable? What about those who are in a deep state of depression who aren’t able to reach out for help. Would you rather hand them the means to kill themselves or reach out a hand and help them find the proper help on how to overcome their struggle, or at least gain control of it. Are you a survivor of suicide? I am, and I wish someone helped our family out rather than throw us the rope. I resent anyone who hasn’t walked this path themselves and make statements that they know what is right. Mental illness is more treatable than having cancer. There is a way to make it if the right hand of compasion and resources are given to them.
lol ya cause noone will be able to figure out putting a gun to your head will kill u lol or how bout jumping off very high things lol. I think if your sound of mind over 18 and wanna kill yourself you should be able to, its your life, whos the government to say whether you can live or die. I especially agree with assisted suicide if your in constant pain, or a vegtable and your brain works (couldnt think of a worse hell) you should be able to die if you want. The right to die with dignity is and should be one of the most basic human rights. Plus anything that decreases the surplus population is a good thing for those people who dont wish to commit suicide.
It’s understandable if one is in constant pain. I agree, but what about those who haven’t had a chance to find a way to live and there could be a way to live with the right help? These websites can make it too late for others that could have lived without their present pain. This is devestation.
Yes
Although people have expressed concerns about the basic right of free will, I think that they are naive to think that the only people that visit these sites are adults who have access to assistance (regardless of any potential “controls” to prevent access by juveniles).
In addition, sad as it is, there are those that do frequent such websites for the sole purpose of having “fun” by encouraging people to take their lives. Or what about the potential for site peer pressure if someone does take their lives?
I casn’t say yes, but I also can not say no either. Either way, if a person is suicidal and chooses to end their life, or earthly existence. They will go ahead and do so.
Has society really degraded to the point that someone has to research how to kill themself? And that the only way to prevent it is to block a search engine and remove freedoms? Oh yeah we, as a society, have no true freedoms anymore and society and government in general cater to the stupid and “weak” members if society.
did you guys even READ the article?! they want to ban sites that PROMOTE suicide, not suicide help!
You sound very angry and seem to be very one sided and not very open minded to “positive” possibilities, meaning pro life for those who are not terminal. How dare you speak for those families who will live the rest of their lives wondering, what if he/she only got the proper help. Your attitude is dangerous to society as I see it.
No they should not be blocked. The subject should be a more open one and assisted suicide should be legalizle everywhere, not just in some remote parts of the world and I believe Oregan and Washington if you are in the U.S.
Someone who is in constant intractable pain who’s tried everything and has been told my doctors that there is nothing left for them to offer, meaning they’ve tried all the meds and nothing works, should not be scrutinized by wanting to commit suicide.
We ask people to continue living in severe pain when there is no hope but not even ask that of an animal.
There’s something really wrong with that mentality.
The problem is those that are in severe pain cannot picket the streets for change because they are house bound trying to get from one day to another with no quality of life and have no one to speak for them.
It’s a travesty to not have assisted suicide for these poor suffering people, so the least, the very least that can be done is to leave the sites up for them if they should want to learn more about it.
Remember, only you, yourself, can decide when you can’t take anymore. No one can or should be able to decide for you, so there is nothing wrong with it, in a hopeless situation and I wish there would not be any stigma attached to someone wanting relief.
Having lost a few people to suicide. I can honestly say I do wish that access to such sites should definitely be stopped.
i agree…its the young kids we have to protect from these sites..i believe adults should be able to make that choice if they have not hope and very ill.. also those gore sites should be shut down for sure.. they are degrading and definitely something no one should be able to download .. the actions on there are some of the worse things that some people do to others (Magnotta). remember him?
Wow! That’s a tough one to call. Not sure how many people may be pushed over the edge by visiting those sites but I’m sure there are some who might otherwise change their mind if they weren’t enabled and encouraged by these sites to end it.On the other hand, if you are thinking about it, I believe you may have already found a way anyway and don’t need their help. Sad as it is, ending life may be the only way to peace for some people. Others may just be in a bad place temporarily and need help back out of there but, usually, they won’t ask due to shame and fear of being put away in an institution if someone knows your thinking about it. I don’t think these sites would make much difference to those folks. Sometimes, enough is just enough and we lose hope. Hope, after all, is what keeps us trying and if that goes you become hopeless in your mind. The internet may enable the ultimate decision but I really think it would happen anyway if it was going to. Sad to think about.
Just another case of a “do gooder” trying to take control,and one step towards internet censorship.
To “FEEL” suicidal is bad enough without having sites out there to SHOW YOU HOW!!! Why not create PREVENTION SITES!!! Somewhere for a desperate person to go to for HELP TO LIVE——-NOT DIE!!! One responder said; “they will go ahead and do it anyway” and another said; ” one step towards internet censorship”!! CENSORSHIP!! REALLY?? So—you are saying it’s—OKAY—to show someone how to “off” themselves—instead of HELPING them!! What a F*&^ED UP WORLD!!! I am SO glad you aren’t a friend of MINE!!
I fail to see how that would help if the article suggests prevention of suicides. There are thousand other ways if a person does wish to end his or her life. However, when it comes to internet policing, I do agree that porn and other harmful content should be blocked. There’s no way kids are going to get as they say”de-addicted”. You have to enforce controls. For example, I use an app called Qustodio to restrict the content my kids watch on the web. It also includes watching what they actually go through as also the time they spend on the internet. Teenagers hardly understand self-regulation. It needs to be enforced. Qustodio is a nice little free app. Just Google for more info. on it.