Re:How Google (and we) encourage suicide
by gojomo on Monday January 14, 2013 @02:47AM
(#5053725)
From previous coverage I recall, and a current search (from the USA) just confirmed, that above the first search result is a phone number for a suicide-prevention hotline.
Beyond that, do you have any evidence that "these links are enough to push people over the edge"?
It's possible the opposite is true: that receiving instant, accurate, agenda-free information about suicide actually reduces completed suicides, for example by exercising the imagination harmlessly, or making the details more salient and revulsive, or other mechanisms. You'd have to study the effects to be sure -- not just make guesses from intuition, which can be especially misleading when dealing with mood-disturbed masses.
Beyond that, do you have any evidence that "these links are enough to push people over the edge"?
It's possible the opposite is true: that receiving instant, accurate, agenda-free information about suicide actually reduces completed suicides, for example by exercising the imagination harmlessly, or making the details more salient and revulsive, or other mechanisms. You'd have to study the effects to be sure -- not just make guesses from intuition, which can be especially misleading when dealing with mood-disturbed masses.