Changes in accessibility of suicide-related information on websites in Taiwan during 2016 and 2019

• Published in: Journal of the Formosan Medical Association Vol. 121; no. 1; pp. 335 - 341
• Main Authors: Huang, Cho-Yin, Tsai, Chi-Wei, Chi, Ying-Chen, Wu, Kevin Chien-Chang, Chen, Ying-Yeh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Elsevier B.V 01.01.2022; Elsevier
• Subjects: Humans; Internet; Painless suicide; Pro-suicide; Suicide; Taiwan; Taiwan; Pro-suicide; Painless suicide; Internet
• ISSN: 0929-6646; 1876-0821
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfma.2021.05.005

To the best of our knowledge, no studies have examined longitudinal changes in the accessibility of suicide-related content on Chinese-language websites. We investigated changes between 2016 and 2019 in suicide-related materials likely to be accessed by individuals through websites in Taiwan. In March 2019, we searched the Taiwanese versions of Google and Yahoo! using six suicide-related terms and compared the results to a search performed in 2016. Website characteristics (e.g., pro- or anti-suicide) generated by various keywords were calculated and compared in 2016 and 2019. The number of anti-suicide websites exceeded that of pro-suicide websites in 2016 and 2019. Between 2016 and 2019, the proportion of pro-suicide sites decreased slightly from 16.3% (61 out of 375 sites) to 12.3% (51 out of 417 sites) (p = 0.10). User-generated webpages constituted the primary source of pro-suicide content at both time points. Over the same period, the proportion of pro-suicide information on internet forums decreased from 59.1% to 17.8% (p < 0.001); by contrast, pro-suicide content on news websites increased significantly, from 1.9% to 11.3% (p = 0.005). Searches with the term “painless suicide” were more likely to yield pro-suicide websites and less likely to generate anti-suicide ones than searches with “suicide” in both 2016 and 2019. Harmful suicide-related information circulating on websites remained easily accessible to internet users in Taiwan, particularly through user-generated and news websites. Proper site moderation and implementation of online suicide reporting guidelines are still warranted.