The Internet as a path to suicide
Kim Hee Joo and five other social workers troll
the Internet to combat a disturbing trend in South Korea: people using the Web
to trade tips about suicide, and in some cases to form suicide
pacts.
Actress Jeong Da-bin hung herself in February
From their nondescript sixth-floor office, Kim Hee Joo and five other social workers troll the Internet to combat a disturbing trend in South Korea: people using the Web to trade tips about suicide, and in some cases to form suicide pacts.
In the past 25 years, South Korea has gone from having one of the world’s lower suicide rates to having one of its highest. Experts attribute the increase to the stresses of rapid modernization, but they are also raising alarms about the role of the Internet. South Korea also has one of the world’s highest rates of broadband access and the Internet has become a lethally efficient means of bringing together people with suicide on their minds.
Seoul Metro began erecting glass walls on subway platforms after 95 people, some wearing black plastic bags over their heads, threw themselves in front of subway trains in 2003. The government also plans to introduce a video surveillance system with monitors installed in the trains that will allow conductors to check platform conditions before the train enters a station.
Kim’s suicide prevention team discovers an average of 100 suicide-related Web sites each month and asks portals to delete them. A few are serious enough to alert the police to possible violations of laws against assisting suicide or trading in hazardous substances.
We covered the same phenomenon a year ago - in Japan.
Who knows? This may be the next hit on MySpace?
Posted: Tue - May 22, 2007 at 11:27 AM