RICHARD WANTS TO kill himself and would like to know whether anyone has any experience of self-strangulation. He has put the question to an internet chat room, and he is serious. “How long should this take before becoming unconscious?” he asks. “Is it likely to work? I tried it last night but after about a minute nothing seemed to be happening except for the pain in my neck, which wasn’t too bad, but I gave up because . . . I dunno, just thinking about stuff.”
“Wiley”, also in the chat room, replies: “I think that you would pass out and not be able to continue applying the pressure necessary. Richard is not satisfied by this: “Surely if I tied the rope tight enough it would work?” he persists. “OK, that’s hanging yourself,” Wiley says. “I thought you were talking about using your hands. Hanging is a time-proven method of suicide.”
At this point “Chagrin” joins the discussion. “Hanging would definitely be more advisable,” he suggests. But Richard is determined to pursue his first choice. “I’ll give it another shot, I think maybe I could do it if I do it right.”
This conversation took place on an electronic noticeboard attached to a website that explains how to commit suicide and reassures young people who are contemplating it that killing themselves is a positive choice.
The information it gives is wide-ranging, detailed and explicit. There is a video film’s transcript of a man talking viewers through his exit; there are diagrams designed to ensure that suicide attempts succeed; there is advice on exiting in a group, which is said to “help reduce anxiety” (sic). And there are testimonies contributed by dozens of unhappy, isolated young people, all intent on sharing their pain with those of a similar disposition.
Yesterday it was revealed that Brandon Vedas, a 21-year-old computer technician from Phoenix, Arizona, was encouraged to overdose on five different drugs by a group of virtual friends watching him via his webcam as his mother did the crossword in the next room. Set in the context of a suicide website, his death remains shocking, but it is also unsurprising.
Most participants in suicide websites feel unloved and already seem to be contemplating suicide, or have attempted it, and there is plenty of advice on how not to be talked out of it. The discussion forum is a “sanctuary where people can discuss suicide in an atmosphere that is not condemnatory, as much of Western culture is”, the site announces.
It is estimated that thousands of such death sites now exist on the unregulated net. In 1998 an authoritative report suggested that there were 9,000. And a number of teenagers have killed themselves after announcing their intentions on the net. Markus B, a young German, first declared his interest in suicide on the net when he was 16. By the time of his death at 18 he had become a cult figure on the website. On November 11, 2000, his final message read: “Everything went well in the gun shop. I picked up my weapon today (300DM is really reasonable).” Three days later he set the Beatles song Let It Be to play continuously in his bedroom and locked the door. When his parents came home and went up to look for him they found their son dead. He had shot himself in the head.
It is impossible to know how many young people are using suicide sites, though it is known that around five million British children between seven and 16 go online regularly. It is also clear that the internet itself attracts those most prone to suicide: young men. Seventy-five per cent of suicides are by men and 80 per cent of those are committed by men aged 15 to 24.
Dr John Connolly is a consultant psychiatrist with the Irish Association of Suicidology, an organisation that aims to extend understanding of suicide, and to prevent it. “Young men spend a lot of time surfing the net, and they are also the people at greatest risk of suicide,” he says. “We know that if people who are vulnerable get into this kind of site it can easily tip them over the edge. Some of the sites are sick and bizarre but for a teenager who feels lonely and isolated they can give a sense of credibility and recognition. They normalise suicide and that is unhealthy.”
A report on suicide on the internet published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Mental Health Nursing comments: “The internet may play a major role in influencing the suicide status of young, vulnerable people who look for confirmation of their feelings and problem-solving approaches in sites that provide encouragement for the act of suicide.”
The authors, Pierre Baume, Andrew Rolfe and Michael Clinton, say that a potential suicide may feel “compelled by internet participation to follow through with an action that, in other circumstances, he may have been able to change his mind about. He might have felt that it was more important to go through with killing himself than to lose face by not acting on his messages and the feedback he received. It is all too easy for self-destructive individuals to incite others to kill themselves.”
Stephen Carrick-Davies is development manager of Childline International, a charity that aims to protect children online. He describes some suicide sites as “purposely provocative and sensational, just intent on causing trouble” but believes that parents need to acknowledge the risks of children using such sites, rather than try to ban their children from using the computer, which may be impractical.
“Parents need to teach their children to make wise decisions,” he says. “People talk about the dangers of inappropriate content; the real danger is inappropriate contact. When my daughter is 14 I would be concerned if she was talking to an adult from Oslo. The children who are most vulnerable are those who are lonely or isolated and who don’t have tremendous social skills in the offline world. They are particularly prone to inappropriate grooming.”
The difficulty for parents is compounded by the fact that while illegal sites can be reported to the police, suicide sites do not break the law.
“It’s like bringing the city into your front room,” Carrick-Davies says. “Every parent would like to take their child to the zoo but would you let your child wander round Soho or go to a meeting of Suicides Anonymous? This is why parents must wake up to the dangers and tell their children never to give out their mobile phone numbers on the net, never to agree to meet someone they know online unless they do so in a public space and with supervision. There is an urgent need to develop a code of safe practice for the internet.”
How much of a risk is the internet to troubled teenagers?
E-mail debate@thetimes.co.uk
INTERNET SUICIDE - LINKS
The Samaritans: 08457 909090
www.samaritans.org.uk
www.iwf.org.uk The Internet Watch Foundation
www.icra.org The Internet Content Rating Association has directions on how to set up Internet filters to screen out harmful material
www.getnetwise.org Guidance for parents about the risks children face online and information on filters
