|
Abstract
|
Background/Purpose: In this increasingly globalized Internet-centered era, social media across different platforms and languages can rapidly spread suicide information without borders. The study aimed to track the trend of websites of local or overseas IP addresses with suicide-instigating information in Taiwan between 2014 and 2022 inclusively.
METHODS: From January 2014 to December 2022, the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center (TSPC) regularly searched the top 100 web pages on the Google search engine using suicide-related keywords. The TSPC listed and reported web pages that met the inclusion criteria for content indicating the meaning of instigating or abetting suicide. The inclusive criteria for instigating suicide included information indicating analysis or a detailed description of suicide methods. Written and audio-visual works that contained detailed descriptions of how the suicide was completed and likely to be imitated were included. The TSPC initiated a standard intervention procedure to advise the removal of inappropriate messages or links for web content meeting the inclusion criteria.
RESULTS: The TSPC identified 543 websites containing suicide-related content, of which 420 (77.3%) website links were disabled or removed. The TSPC also removed 162 (95.9%) websites from the domestic market, taking down 258 (69.0%) overseas websites.
CONCLUSIONS: Establishing mechanisms for worldwide cooperation is critical to stopping inadequate suicide information from circulating. The study findings suggested an important task for national surveillance of websites instigating suicide, particularly for those websites located at overseas IP addresses that were difficult to trace and take down. In the meantime, the WHO's 6 "Don'ts" for media professionals can serve as a reference guideline for Internet users while writing suicide-related posts.
Language: zh |