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New bid to curb suicide websites
DARK SIDE OF THE WEB Minister determined to 'protect the vulnerable' Paul Whitehouse MINISTERS have taken the first steps to control "suicide websites" by introducing a package of safeguards following the launch of a Yorkshire Post campaign three months ago.
The development marks an early success in the campaign to protect the vulnerable from the influence of material which encourages self-harm and provides detailed information on suicide.
Health Minister and Doncaster MP Rosie Winterton has met internet service providers, the companies which allow access to the internet, to request voluntary co-operation.
Subsequent Government checks suggest most have now changed their operational systems to ensure that when internet viewers use search engines to request information on suicide, they are always first presented with links to responsible organisations such as Samaritans and Childline. The Department of Health is playing a central role in attempts to bring in tighter controls because that section of Government has overall responsibility for minimising suicides.
A spokeswoman confirmed all the major internet search companies were "receptive" and said: "Recent searches on some of the main search engines have shown that virtually all of the sites appearing in the first pages of results are about suicide prevention and are offering help and support to those who may be contemplating suicide." That is in stark contrast to the websites visited by victims including Carina Stephenson, 17, from Doncaster, who took her own life in the spring after visiting websites advocating suicide and chatrooms where she made pacts with several others intent on taking their own lives.
The revelation by computer analysts of the extent to which the student had become immersed in the world of sinister websites provoked her mother, Liz Taylor, into launching a campaign to get those sites banned.
That campaign has been supported by the Yorkshire Post since its inception and details of a catalogue of similar deaths, including a man in Barnsley, have emerged as a result of investigations.
In addition to the work with internet service providers, the Government is taking further steps to try to minimise the problem
and all departments have been asked to try to identify ways of discouraging such sites, although that stops short of a change in the law.
Clear information for parents who feel they need help in coping with suicidal
children will also be included on Government websites and education in schools could be improved
to better warn children of risk in dabbling with those sites.
Health Minister Rosie Winterton said: "I share the public's concern about these websites and the influence they can have over vulnerable people, particularly young people.
"I, along with my colleagues in government, am doing everything in my power to make these sites hard to access and to protect the most vulnerable people," she said.
The developments have been praised by Liz Taylor but she insists the campaign, which at present has centred on gathering names for a petition to be presented to the Government, will continue.
"Rosie Winterton has been very positive and I am pleased to see there is some progress, but it needs more than that and I will continue until I am satisfied other parents will not have to go through losing a child because of what they can find on the internet," she said.
The family had been unaware of Carina's internet communication until her death.
It later emerged she had been able to disable the safeguards installed in her laptop computer, originally bought as an aid for her GCSE studies, to allow her unrestricted access to the web.
Her death has left the family devastated.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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