Does
the web cause copycat suicides? Post your comments
As police try to fathom what persuaded seven young people to take their lives
in the South Wales town of Bridgend, the role of the internet has come under
increasing scrutiny: as a social networking link between suicidal teenagers,
as a guide to self- destruction and even, perhaps, as a tragic route to
posthumous celebrity.
There is a growing debate over the internet and suicide. Police fear that the
prestige of having a memorial website, where friends come to mourn and pay
tribute online, may have contributed to the spate of suicides.
Within hours of the death of Natasha Randall, 17, last Thursday, a site
dedicated to her name appeared on the web, with photographs, poems and
tributes. By yesterday afternoon nearly 3,000 people had logged on to the
site for the girl known as Tasha. A posting chosen at random declared: “Love
you loads your a star && always well be 4eva xx”.
It is the element of “stardom” that most alarms psychologists, who fear that
the glorification of teenage suicide on the internet may encourage others to
follow suit. Tasha’s earlier tribute to her friend Liam Clark, who killed
himself shortly after Christmas, was similar in tone to the dozens that now
festoon her own memorial website: “RIP, Clarky boy!! gonna miss ya! always
remember the gd times!”
Her death followed the suicides of six other young people in the same town,
most of whom knew each other, over the past 12 months. Police have been
visiting the families of friends of the dead girl, urging parents to be
vigilant.
The suicides in Bridgend are only the latest evidence of a growing and deeply
disturbing link between suicide and the internet. Debate has centred on
suicide chat rooms, in which users may be encouraging others to kill
themselves, and on websites that offer information on different ways to
commit suicide.
Suicide is the most common cause of death among British teenagers. Suicide
websites and chat rooms have been implicated in the deaths of at least 27
young people in the past six years, leading to calls for closer regulation
of the internet.
Under the 1961 Suicide Act it is illegal to promote suicide but there has
never been a successful prosecution for assisting suicide online. The
pressure group Papyrus is lobbying the Government to amend the law to make
it illegal for internet sites to publish material aimed at aiding suicides.
Rosemary Vaux, a spokeswoman for Papyrus, said: “In the United Kingdom the law
specifically bans grooming a child for sex, but it’s not illegal to groom a
child for death.”
The suggestion by police that a desire for internet celebrity may be part of
the explanation for some of the latest suicides has added a new element to
the potent and potentially self-destructive mix of teenage depression,
social pressure and desire for the approval of friends.
For many young people, the internet has taken the place of other, more
traditional, forms of interaction between peers. Psychologists say that
teenagers who are unwilling to air their problems with adults or face to
face with friends may be more willing to discuss such matters through social
networking websites. But there is also a danger of encouraging and perhaps
exaggerating mutual unhappiness, potentially leading to collective or
copycat behaviour.
A study of suicidal behaviour among adolescents published in 1995 found that
young people were more likely to attempt suicide if people important in
their lives had attempted suicide or died by their own hand. There is
conflicting evidence about the effect of media reports on suicide rates. A
more recent study showed that young people were getting their information
about suicide, in both fictional and factual form, from the media, and such
reports were particularly prevalent on the internet.
Personally, I have some misgivings about even writing about teenage suicide,
for fear that it might serve to alert young people to the possibility. But
unless parents are made aware of the dangers lurking on the internet there
is perhaps a greater danger of self-destructive social networks developing
among young people unnoticed and unregulated, until it is too late.
Some suicide websites offer detailed information on suicide methods, and many
have chat rooms in which users provide advice about funeral arrangements and
suicide notes and even offer active encouragement. In the words of Papyrus:
“These young people, who are obviously depressed and vulnerable, go on these
websites and they egg each other on.”
In August last year Kevin Whitrick, from Wellington, Shropshire, committed
suicide while using a live webcam. Simon Kelly, from Cornwall, was
communicating with others on a suicide chat room right up until the moment
that he killed himself in 2001.
Paul Kelly, who is campaigning with Papyrus to change the law, told Radio 4:
“It was extremely distressing to read this and know that no one in the chat
room would make any effort to stop him. The philosophy is that they will not
intervene once someone decides to ‘catch the bus’, which is the phrase they
use for committing suicide.”
There is no suggestion that the seven young people who have killed themselves
in Bridgend actively encouraged one another towards suicide but the case has
exposed the potential link between suicide and the instant, if transitory,
celebrity afforded by the internet.
The South Wales Coroner, Phillip Walters, has been alarmed at the growing
number of young people who are taking their own lives. He said: “I shall be
looking at these networking sites to see if there is a link between them and
the growing number of youngsters committing suicide. In the meantime I want
to warn youngsters about the possible dangers these websites can pose. I
would also like to warn parents to be actively on the alert for signs of
their children being influenced by others on these sites.”
The spate of suicides in Bridgend may be a reflection of despair, but also of
fashion, in the most heartbreaking way. A police spokesman said: “They may
think it’s cool to have a memorial website. It may even be a way of
achieving prestige among their peer group.”
It may be no accident that on the day the latest suicide was reported in
Bridgend the body of a Hollywood actor was found in New York, having killed
himself either intentionally or accidentally, and the long, sad drug saga of
Amy Winehouse lurched closer to tragedy. In many teenage minds, celebrity
and self-destruction are already entwined.
Natasha Randall’s friends clearly hope to preserve her memory with an online
memorial. But perhaps the best way to ensure that no other teenager is
tempted to seek a brief flicker of fame in the same way would be to shut the
memorial down.
The toll
Jan 2007 Dale Crole, 18 Hanged at the Coney Beach funfair
February David Dilling, 19 Hanged
Thomas Davies, 20 Hanged
August Zachery Barnes, 17 Hanged with washing line
December Liam Clarke, 20 Hanged in park
Jan 2008 Gareth Morgan, 27 Hanged in his bedroom
Natasha Randall, 17 Hanged in bedroom
