Suicide chatrooms

[Julia]

Alarmingly committing suicide on the internet via webcam is on the increase!

Shouldn't those that encourage the victim to end it all be charged with assisting a suicide?

[Lolabelle]

Yeah, I think they should, but I had never heard of this. How sad that these people get to the point where they feel like they cant continue only to get encouragement to end it rather than to find support to go on and have a good life that can overcome lifes hurdles.

[j4bberw0ck]

Alarmingly committing suicide on the internet via webcam is on the increase!

Shouldn't those that encourage the victim to end it all be charged with assisting a suicide?

Bit difficult if they're in North America, or China, or some other foreign jurisdiction.

I think to understand what's going on here you have to get yourself into the head of a wannabe suicide. You can't look at it from the standpoint of a rational non-suicide and hope to understand it.

[Thumper]

Oh j4bberwock ,we seem to disagree alot these days ;) I think that most of these "chatrooms" are there for people so desperate to end their lives that they have nobody they "trust" (or feel they haven't) so they choose to go on there and end their lives with people who will watch their last breaths...I am NOT saying its right in anyway but I am saying there ARE people that desperate and lonely that they "think" these are their only "friends" x

[karia]

The 'pro Anna' websites where anorexics compete in their ability to subsist on an 8th of an apple and three teaspoons of water.

It fair breaks my heart.:~(

It's assisted suicide in my view..though some will argue.

[j4bberw0ck]

Oh j4bberwock ,we seem to disagree alot these days

That's it, then. Corkscrews, wine, cheese and biscuits at dawn! Name your seconds.... :lol::lol:

The main point I was trying to make is that if a website is hosted in another country, one can't just wish it closed down. If people viewing these websites do it through an "anonymizing" proxy server service, there's no way of tracing them. If you close down one server, another can be up and running with the same material in seconds, even if it isn't already running it as a mirror site. So charging those who view with assisting a suicide isn't practical. It may not even be a crime in some jurisdictions.

The other point, about being a rational non-suicide and not being able to understand the mind of a non-rational suicide (if you accept that suicide is usually non-rational) isn't intended to mean that you can't empathise. Just that it seems to me that their view is going to be a different one. So trying to analyse the motives for - let's not mince words - someone wanting to kill themselves in front of an audience is likely to be a highly specialised affair at best.