14 DAY TRIAL // Nowadays, Google is more than a search engine, it's a source of information because people looking for details on a certain topic do nothing more than entering Google's address and typing a certain keyword. Because of that, even persons who want to commit suicide turn to Google, although it sounds pretty cynical. A study conducted by the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Manchester revealed that it's pretty easy to find suicide information on the web search engines, including here Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. Obviously, they cannot be blamed because of enhancing the access to this type of websites: banning them may be considered unacceptable by some people whose image would be seriously affected.
According to the report, the researchers visited no less than 480 web pages, most of them providing information related to suicides. From the total of 480 pages, 45 of them were actually pro-suicide and encouraged, promoted or even facilitated suicide. 43 of them described the methods for committing suicide, but didn't encourage it, while 24 websites provided factual information about suicide methods.
On the other hand, 59 links were completely against suicide, while 62 pages provided support for those interested in committing suicide or attempted to prevent such actions.
"This research shows it is very easy to obtain detailed technical information about methods of suicide, not just from the suicide sites that have caused recent concerns but also from information sites such as Wikipedia. Although dedicated suicide sites were the three most frequently occurring web pages, the searches retrieved an almost equal number of sites aimed at preventing suicide. Some of these seem to have used website optimisation methods to ensure their site is preferentially sourced by people seeking information about suicide methods," it is mentioned in the report.