Renewed call to ban suicide websites

A national charity said there is overwhelming public support for a change in the law to make suicide websites illegal.

Papyrus, a charity dedicated to stopping young people committing suicide, said eight in 10 people in a Yougov survey it commissioned want the Government to act.

It said there has never been a successful UK prosecution for promoting suicide online. Currently, for a successful prosecution it is most likely that the victim has to meet face to face with the person who wishes to assist in his or her death.

Papyrus said the Government must respond to what it called a "clear public demand" for change in the law to make it illegal to groom young people through online websites and chat rooms to take their own lives.

Paul Kelly, trustee leading the charity's internet safety campaign, said amending the law could make a significant difference to the number of young people committing suicide.

Kelly warned without these changes there was nothing to halt the increasing danger to vulnerable young people of pro-suicide sites and chat rooms. He claimed evidence shows that while suicide among older people is declining, the opposite was true for younger people.

The charity said it knew of 27 internet-related suicides by young people in the UK in the past six years; the youngest of whom was aged 13, and it warned there could be more.

However, even if UK law was changed, it would be powerless against sites and users based in other countries.

"We realise this and want to eventually get this campaign to be international. But we can't approach the UN until we have UK law in order. Australia, however, has made great progress in this area and shut down a couple of these sites, so it can be done," a Papyrus representative said.

Papyrus has already delivered two petitions - one presented at 10 Downing Street, the other online - seeking a review of the Suicide Act (1961).

Kelly said the Yougov poll showed it had "overwhelming support from the general public" to make it illegal for internet sites to publish material that has the sole purpose of encouraging and aiding suicide.

The poll also showed that 78 per cent of those surveyed agreed that the existence of websites that have the sole intention of encouraging others to take their own lives is a threat to young and vulnerable people in our society. Of these just over half (54 per cent) strongly agreed.