Britain's Home Office is urging Internet companies to make it tougher for people to access Web sites and chatrooms about suicide, The Guardian reports. "The move comes after two strangers forged Britain's first Internet suicide pact, dying side by side two days after making contact for the first time on a chatroom dedicated to discussions about suicide." Other countries, especially Japan, have … [Read more...] about UK’s first Net suicide pact
Search Results for: suicide
Oz: Proposed suicide-chat law
Maybe the rest of the world will follow suit: The Australian federal government has introduced legislation that would impose fines of up to $110,000 (about $88,000 US) on people "who use the Internet to encourage others to commit suicide," News.com.au reports. "Under the law people, discussing methods of euthanasia over the Internet could also be committing an offence." The operative word is … [Read more...] about Oz: Proposed suicide-chat law
Japan’s Net suicide tragedy
Japanese police have found the bodies of nine people, some of them teenagers, believed to have committed suicide because of suicide-pact Web sites. "Japan has recently seen a wave of Internet-linked suicides, as people seek companions to die with," the BBC reports, adding that more than 34,000 people committed suicide in Japan last year, a small increase from the 2002 figure. According to the New … [Read more...] about Japan’s Net suicide tragedy
Online suicide ‘advice’
This might just be a good thing for parents to know about: suicide sites and chatrooms on the Web. The Australian parliament is considering legislation to "make it a criminal offence to use the internet to counsel or incite suicide," Australian IT reports. The legislation "would also cover material which promoted and provided instruction on a particular method of suicide. Possession, production or … [Read more...] about Online suicide ‘advice’
A solution for ‘awful but lawful’
The youth market researchers at Ypulse just reported that 83% of millennial parents agreed with their survey statement that "social media platforms should do more to police and prevent cyberbullying." Their concerns are certainly justified, because cyberbullying is "awful but lawful" – not generally a kind of online harm that law enforcement can address. But is it worse than the offline version … [Read more...] about A solution for ‘awful but lawful’