LOS ANGELES: Internet searches for ‘how to commit suicide’ spiked right after the release of Netflix’s controversial series ’13 Reasons Why’, a show that depicts a teen girl who takes her own life, a study has found.
The season finale of the teen drama shows a 17-year-old student Hannah Baker committing suicide.
Researchers from San Diego State University in the US found that all suicide-related queries were 19 per cent higher than expected following the release of the finale episode.
Some of that bump came from a higher-than-expected number of searches for phrases like “suicide hotline” (up by 12 per cent) or “suicide prevention” (up by 23 per cent).
However, an alarming percentage of the spike also came from phrases like “how to commit suicide” (up by 26 per cent), “commit suicide” (up by 18 per cent) and “how to kill yourself” (up by nine per cent), researchers said.
“In relative terms, it is hard to appreciate the magnitude of the release of 13 Reasons Why. In fact, there were between 900,000 and 1.5 million more suicide-related searches than expected during the 19 days following the series’ release,” said Mark Dredze, professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in the US.
It is not clear whether any of those searches led directly to suicides, but previous research has found that increases in internet searches for suicide methods are correlated with actual suicides, researchers said.
“While it is heartening that the series’ release concurred with increased awareness of suicide and suicide prevention, our results back up the worst fears of the show’s critics,” said John W Ayers, associate professor at San Diego State University.
“The show may have inspired many to act on their suicidal thoughts by seeking out information on how to commit suicide,” he said.
Researchers looked at data from Google Trends, a public archive of aggregated internet searches. The team focused on searches originating from the US between March 31, 2017, the series’ release date, and April 18.
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