Table 1 Frequency and accessibility of sites related to suicide from searches using 12 different search terms in four search engines
|
| Type of site |
No (%) of hits (n=480) |
Median rank score* |
No (%) of times ranked first (n=48) |
No (%) of times ranked 1-3 (n=144) |
| All dedicated suicide sites: |
90 (19) |
5 |
12 (25) |
32 (22) |
| Pro-suicide; encourage, promote, or facilitate |
45 (9) |
4 |
9 (19) |
22 (15) |
| Describe methods but do not encourage |
43 (9) |
5 |
2 (4) |
9 (6) |
| Portray suicide in fashionable terms |
2 (0.4) |
5 |
1 (2) |
1 (1) |
| All information sites: |
44 (9) |
4.5 |
13 (27) |
18 (13) |
| Factual information about suicide methods |
24 (5) |
3.5 |
9 (19) |
12 (8) |
| Partly joking/tongue in cheek information but suggestive of real methods |
12 (3) |
7.5 |
2 (4) |
3 (2) |
| Completely joking information: most or all methods described not real |
8 (2) |
5.5 |
2 (4) |
3 (2) |
| Against suicide sites |
59 (12) |
5 |
4 (8) |
17 (12) |
| Prevention or support sites |
62 (13) |
5 |
6 (13) |
21 (15) |
| Academic or policy sites |
70 (15) |
7 |
1 (2) |
14 (10) |
| Page not found or not relevant to search term |
88 (18) |
5.5 |
10 (21) |
28 (19) |
| News reports of individual suicides |
12 (3) |
7.5 |
1 (2) |
3 (2) |
| Chat rooms focused on suicide methods |
12 (3) |
6 |
1 (2) |
3 (2) |
| Chat rooms discussing various general issues relating to suicide |
8 (2) |
4.5 |
0 |
4 (3) |
| Miscellaneous sites reporting on topical issues relating to suicide |
35 (7) |
7 |
0 |
5 (3) |
|
* Median scores differed depending on the nature of the site (Kruskall-Wallis P=0.007).