Suicide and internet: analysis of results in search tools

The media can influence people in different attitudes and, particularly, towards suicide. Although it's a still incipient subject in Brazil, this study aimed to replicate, with some adaptations, a British research work on the accessed suicide-related websites contents. Twelve keywords were used in three search engines, for example, suicide; methods of suicide; painless suicide and quick suicide. Only the first 10 statements were considered in each search, which resulted in a sample of 209 websites, after removing the doubled ones. The analysis of these webpage contents was guided by 19 criteria of categorization: those with higher frequencies were the academic websites, followed by the religious, the ones that portray suicide in fashionable terms and by those websites maintained by psychologists and health professionals. The findings show that, unlike the data disclosed by the original article, in Brazil there were no pro-suicide webpages that promote, encourage or facilitate suicide acts.

suicide; media; internet