At least 39 people in Britain have committed suicide after receiving advice from websites or individuals on the internet, yet nobody has ever been prosecuted for encouraging them.
According to the charity Papyrus, set up to prevent suicide at a young age, the youngest victim of suicide connected with an internet site was aged 13. Paul Kelly, the charity's internet safety campaign co-ordinator, suspects that the figure of 39 could just be "the tip of the iceberg" because these were only reported cases where the police had investigated the deceased's computer.
Mr Kelly lost his own son Simon at age 18 when he took an overdose. He had previously discussed suicide in an internet chat room.
In a seperate case, Kevin Whitrick, a father of two from Wellington in Shropshire hung himself in his room. He was filming the event on his webcam and broadcasting it to an audience of 60 people in an internet chat room, one of whom typed: "F***ing do it. Get on with it!". Only one of the sixty people in the chat room dialled 999 to report the incident. Nobody was ever prosecuted over the incident.
However, this is set to change as the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 comes into force, as the act extends existing law against aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring someone to take their own life, to encompass the use of the internet.
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