Websites That Kill?

from the calm-down... dept

While it is very sad that a young man killed himself recently, the fact that the coroner is blaming the internet for the guy’s death is pretty pointless. Apparently, the guy had visited a page that described methods for committing suicide, and proceeded to use one of them (he hung himself). It’s easy, therefore, to blame the website for this — but that makes the somewhat ridiculous assumption that if this website didn’t exist, the guy never would have found another such website, a different source entirely, or simply figured out how to kill himself on his own. It’s not the website that was the problem, and getting rid of it wouldn’t have changed anything. This was, obviously, a very troubled individual, and focusing on the website as the cause of his suicide means that less attention will be paid towards looking at the root causes of depression and what makes people want to kill themselves.


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Comments on “Websites That Kill?”

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6 Comments
slim says:

The rope is for ...

Here’s what the coroner said:

The Coroner told the court: “It is the height of irresponsibility to publish a site which could encourage someone to be tipped over the edge. The internet is there to educate and improve life, not destroy it.”

Now, let’s rewrite this paragraph to ban OTHER THINGS:

The Coroner told the court: “It is the height of irresponsibility to grow a tree which could then be turned into a door, from which you can attach a hook and then rope, allowing someone to be tipped over the edge. Doors there to be opened and closed and improve life, not destroy it.”

The internet seems especially useful in determining which coroners can’t think further than the nose on their face.

Let’s shut down the libraries, and ban the printed word while we’re at it.

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