- Title
- Is a person thinking about suicide likely to find help on the internet? An evaluation of Google search results
- Creator
- Thornton, Louise; Handley, Tonelle; Kay-Lambkin, Frances; Baker, Amanda
- Relation
- Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior Vol. 47, Issue 1, p. 48-53
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12261
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- It is unclear whether individuals searching the Internet for assistance with thoughts of suicide are likely to encounter predominantly helpful or harmful resources. This study investigated websites retrieved by searching Google for information and support for suicidal thoughts. Google searches retrieved a high percentage of irrelevant websites (26%, n = 136). Of the 329 relevant websites retrieved, the majority were suicide preventive (68%); however, a considerable proportion of sites expressed mixed (22%) or neutral (8%) suicide attitudes, and 1% were explicitly pro-suicide. The results highlight a need for suicide prevention organization websites to be made more easily accessible. In the meantime, clinicians should be aware of appropriate websites to recommend to clients.
- Subject
- suicide; Google; suicide risk; self harm
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1334635
- Identifier
- uon:27342
- Identifier
- ISSN:0363-0234
- Rights
- This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Thornton, Louise, Handley, Tonelle, Kay-Lambkin, Frances, Baker, Amanda (2017), “Is a person thinking about suicide likely to find help on the internet? An evaluation of Google search results”, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12261. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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