Wikipedia publishes suicide instructions

Wikipedia, the online ‘free encyclopaedia’ written and edited by its users, now includes dozens of detailed suicide methods with descriptions of ways in which people can mutilate or kill themselves.

A representative of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, she said, "A site detailing the different methods someone could use to kill themselves could definitely be harmful to the public."

Head of communications, Jay Walsh, for the Wikimedia Foundation, however said the organisation does not take responsibility for editing the content of its pages.

"The Wikimedia Foundation operates the software and maintains the servers that power Wikipedia; however the entire Wikipedia project is maintained exclusively by volunteers," he said. "No paid staff make edits to content, rather members of the volunteer community will add or remove information at their discretion and within the support of the editorial pillars of Wikipedia, which generally include: noncensorship, neutral point of view, no original research and to a similar extent, addressing the question of 'notability.'"

In a recent suicide study, researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Manchester imitated a typical Internet search performed by a person looking for instructions and information about suicide methods. They used the four largest Internet search engines available - Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.

The researchers published their findings in an article titled, 'Suicide and the Internet.' The study found, "The top four sites provided not only information but also evaluation of methods of suicide. This included, for instance, detailed information about speed, certainty, and the likely amount of pain associated with a method."

Of the three most frequently appearing websites, one is openly satanic and all are pro-suicide, the study reported. "Wikipedia was the fourth most frequently occurring site."

What do you think should be done about this? Should Wikipedia do more to prevent methods like this to be on a frequently used site? Have your say in the forum.

Released on Thursday 31st July 2008

Source - www.worldnetdaily.com