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Lifeline that leads out from a web of despair
With figures showing an increase in the number of young people taking their own lives after visiting suicide websites, charities are now using the same technology to throw a virtual lifeline to those in need. John Hayes reports.
The internet has no morals. It simply acts as a mirror on society, reflecting the human condition in its entirety, complete with its frailties and taboos, while storing the information for easy retrieval in an apparently anonymous environment.
Operating outside of the normal constraints of traditional publishing or broadcasting, it is a tool that can be used for both good and bad.
Thankfully, the majority of British internet users are very conservative in their web use. According to research by the public services website www.direct.gov.uk, the average internet user accesses only six websites on a regular basis. Therefore, it is perhaps unsurprising that websites such as Yahoo, Google, eBay and the BBC jostle for prime position as the UK's most popular online venue.
However, the sheer size of the web (search engine Google currently indexes over three-billion web pages and it is estimated an additional ten-million new pages are created every day) also allows the internet to cater for enthusiasts of any niche, giving them the opportunity to meet up and share information that would not normally be made available elsewhere due to its specialised, and at times bizarre (although mostly harmless), nature.
Unfortunately, this expanse is also home to a more sinister side of the web. It is here where you will find, if you know where to look, child pornography, racial and religious intolerance, online tools to assist in fraudulent activity, and, as widely reported in the pages of the Yorkshire Post, the malevolent world of suicide websites.
It is here that often highly distressed individuals are guided, coaxed and actively encouraged to take their own lives, often in pacts with other members of the online suicide community who seek to normalise, at least in their own minds, their final desperate act.
It is the solitary nature of web surfing, coupled with the addictive qualities of the internet, that allows for vulnerable, often very young and nave, people to be quickly lured into exploitative, dangerous and often illegal behaviour online.
The real tragedy is you don't have to dig too deeply to find the internet's more menacing zones. A simple search on Google or even on the online bookstore Amazon reveals, within a couple of clicks, clues to help track down literature and advice on suicide.
This was brought sharply into focus last year when teenager Carina Stephenson, from Branton in South Yorkshire, took her own life after visiting suicide websites.
Recognising the peril, a group of dedicated charities, organisations and individuals are fighting back to offer a glimmer of hope to those in crisis.
According to Mike Cobb, a press spokesman for the Samaritans, which provides confidential emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair which may lead to suicide, the charity received more than 130,000 emails in 2005, a 24 per cent increase on the previous year and accounting for 13 per cent of dialogue contact with the charity.
The Samaritans believe that being listened to in confidence and accepted without prejudice can alleviate despair and suicidal feelings, and emails are currently handled by volunteers in 170 of the charity's 204 branches nationwide. The charity tries to answer all emails received within 24 hours.
Users of the service value the anonymity email offers and many guarantee confidentiality by making contact via free, anonymous, web-based email accounts from service providers like Yahoo and Hotmail.
One email user said of the service: "Someone was prepared to listen. It also helped me think things through by writing it all down and the fact that someone was prepared to read it and effectively listen... helped a lot."
"The internet is just another way of getting in touch with the Samaritans," says Mike. "Most people contact us by telephone but we still have people making contact by letter and we have recently launched a text-based service for mobile phone users.
"We have heard from girls, and it is usually young girls, who self-harm, that the simple act of texting us prevents them from harming themselves. It can act as a release, giving them something else to think about."
Following a recent episode of the television soap Hollyoaks, where a character considered suicide following an affair, texts to the Samaritans service increased to up to four times their normal level, and other charities are increasingly turning to online services.
The anti-bullying system, Text Someone (www.textsomeone.com), run by the company Truancy Call Ltd, whose primary work is to reduce truancy by contacting parents by phone, email and text message when their child fails to turn up, also allocates schools a mobile phone number and a secure website for children to report episodes of bullying.
Bullying, along with sexual abuse, family break-ups, drug abuse and exam pressure, is believed to be a major factor leading to young people considering suicide. It has been estimated that upwards of 19,000 adolescents attempt suicide every year in the UK.
"The service is promoted in schools via posters and through the issuing of a Text Someone Card to each pupil containing all the contact details they need," says a spokesperson for the Truancy Call Ltd.
"Whenever a pupil sends a message, it will automatically appear on the school system, with staff alerted by email or a text message.
"They can then securely log into the system to see all of the messages reported by pupils, reply to the message and enter appropriate notes, thus
providing historic details of what happened after an incident was reported."
Childline, which runs a 24-hour helpline for children in distress or danger, also provides anti-bullying resources online, but it's not just charities and educational support services who are using the web to reach people in their hour of need.
Private counsellors and psychotherapists are also turning to the internet to offer support and advice to a growing number of clients.
Bradford-based therapist Julie Perry has been offering a counselling service via email for three years. Each therapeutic email exchange costs 25, which is paid using a debit or credit card.
Julie admits that many people find the idea of online counselling very strange, but claims people soon come around to the idea once they have tried it.
"When people give it a try they quickly realise they are listened to in a similar way," she says. "They like the fact they can re-read emails many times and they have a lot of flexibility and can reply in their own time, which may be two in the morning! They can write as little or as much as they want and I give a lot of time and thought to my replies.
"Some people don't want others to know they are having counselling, others are busy and can't make regular appointments, others are isolated and can't get to a local counsellor, some like the anonymity, it gives them confidence to tell me things they wouldn't have the courage to talk about were we face to face."
Julie, who has a BA (Hons) in Psychology and Philosophy from Keele University and is accredited with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, believes online counselling can help with all sorts of emotional problems.
"Big or small," she says. "If it is a problem for you then it can be helpful to talk about it."
HELP LINES
The Samaritans
Web: www.samaritans.org.uk
Email: jo@samaritans.org
Tel: 08457 90 90 90
Text: 07725 90 90 90
Text Someone
Web: www.textsomeone.com
Childline
Web: www.childline.org.uk
Tel: 0800 1111
Julie Perry Counselling
Web: www.onlinecounsellor.co.uk
Tel: 07767 798605
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