Comments on: Suicites http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200809/suicites/ standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:47:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: The Goldfish http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200809/suicites/#comment-39122 The Goldfish Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:36:12 +0000 http://www.thepickards.co.uk/?p=873#comment-39122 Suicide is a really weird one because it definitely does invite copycat behaviour; there's various bits of research which link suicides in soap opera to an increase in actual deaths. Even reporting in the press is dodgy - seven teenagers dying in Bridgend are clearly not a random coincidence. But you can't possibly censor everything that someone contemplating suicide might seek out - you can't actually censor information that would be useful in committing a murder (unless that crime can be said to be incited). Personally, I think the Mental Health charities and other concerned parties should make an assault on the google-rankings. Just as the way to fight dangerous political beliefs is to argue the alternative - and like you say, tackle the root causes (despite what I said about research, there's no evidence that media coverage, websites etc. are anything greater than a trigger - a fatal trigger, but still). And of course, where the law is breeched, it should be properly enforced. Suicide is a really weird one because it definitely does invite copycat behaviour; there’s various bits of research which link suicides in soap opera to an increase in actual deaths. Even reporting in the press is dodgy - seven teenagers dying in Bridgend are clearly not a random coincidence.

But you can’t possibly censor everything that someone contemplating suicide might seek out - you can’t actually censor information that would be useful in committing a murder (unless that crime can be said to be incited).

Personally, I think the Mental Health charities and other concerned parties should make an assault on the google-rankings. Just as the way to fight dangerous political beliefs is to argue the alternative - and like you say, tackle the root causes (despite what I said about research, there’s no evidence that media coverage, websites etc. are anything greater than a trigger - a fatal trigger, but still).

And of course, where the law is breeched, it should be properly enforced.

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