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).