Pro-Suicide Websites- Should their be laws?

Points well taken, '99.

I saw a tv show last night while I was eating dinner that made me so sad. It was a group of bitchy little teens who turned on the smallest among them. One of them killed her to be cool. My heart broke for that sweet, trusting little girl who got pulled into that awful web of popularity. When I read the links you provided and I thought of some sad, impressionable kid online with those voyeristic, soulless vampires, I thot of that precious little girl all over again. It might have been a tv show, but there are plenty of little girls just like that who have died b/c of a complete wholesale lack of guidance and peer pressure. Sorry.. it just hit me deep. I've always been a sucker for the underdog.

It is very sad and you would be sadder if I were to post some of the websites/groups for people to view. However, I will not due that as it could lead to additional persons popping up on these sites that may not have good motives. Too many people find them on there own, the bad guys and the kids so I won't help that along.

I think the worst part is when a final letter is posted or arrives to the site (via what is know as delayed emailing so the letter arrives to the group/community after the death with details that can and have been verified). You wonder if you could have said something in chat or posted something that would have made a difference. Sometimes the reasons given by the young people are so small in retrospect such as a breakup with a boyfriend, can't go to something, dislike parents. There are many cases too of abused kids that just reach the end of the pain and give up.

Like with any site sometimes it is hard to tell truth from drama but even from behind a computer screen, those truly in pain, you can feel it in the words they type. I think the best start is cyber police checking out these sites for themselves and watching what transpires. I will say there are some sites that really try hard with excellant moderators to find and ban such predators but as any website knows, it is not that easy.

One thing that pissed me off on some of those sites, if I was understanding correctly, is (a) they are not moderated AT ALL and (b) they don't like anyone trying to dissuade someone from offing themselves. I'm sorry to offend some, but it sounds like the devil's playground. LITERALLY.

Yes you are correct. Groups that operate in the usenet (news groups vs websites, also known as the underground net for some reason in some circles) are not moderated. It is very difficult to moderate some as they are large, spread out and change stripes at times and some will revert to email posting only thus to the public, you never see the conversatons occuring nor can you search for them.

I will say many of the groups have done quite a good job of hiding themselves and their postings. It is my hope that through moderation on the more public sites we can prevent kids from following posted links and emails to the hidden ones where we really can't help them. You would literally have to shut down google groups as a whole and that is just not ever going to happen nor should it.

Seems like, for the sake of our children, if these sites are allowed to exist, there definitely should be some moderation going on. And another voice (hopefully to offer other solutions).