Internet targeted for curbing suicide
Following a string of celebrity suicides here in recent years, the government has decided to tighten its online crackdown on information about suicide in cooperation with civic groups, officials said Sunday.
Over the past five years, there have been seven high-profile celebrity suicides, including the case of actor/singer Park Yong-ha, who was found dead on June 30.
The nation’s suicide rate is the highest among OECD member states, with the most recent figures from Statistics Korea standing at 21.5 per 100,000.
“Copycat suicides are likely to increase as another celebrity suicide occurred and group suicides planned through the Internet started surging again recently,” said a Health Ministry official.
“Due to worries over the situation, three organizations -- the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Police Agency and the Korean Association for Suicide Prevention -- have joined hands to take countermeasures in a more effective way.”
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| The portrait of Hallyu star Park Yong-ha, who committed suicide on June 30, is placed at his funeral procession early this month. Yonhap News |
The efforts for suicide prevention will, in particular, focus on monitoring the Internet that has been the major place where people collect related information or gather for group suicide.
The government has picked the fourth batch of 884 online users who will monitor and report portal sites or bulletin boards that contain information related to suicide. Last year, a total of 8,341 cases were reported by the “Nuri Cops,” honorary cyber police officers.
Harmful websites and information reported would be monitored by the suicide prevention association.
Reported cases that violate the law, such as abetting known suicide attempts and selling toxic chemicals, will be investigated by the police intensively from Monday for two weeks.
Those who are found to be at a high risk of suicide will be offered counseling programs and, if considered necessary, be monitored by local welfare workers.
In a recent survey, one out of six Koreans was found to have “seriously” considered committing suicide at least once.
A total of 6,510 people aged 18 or over were questioned for the nation’s first large-scale survey on suicide, which was conducted by researchers at Seoul National University and Seoul Samsung Hospital.
Of the respondents, 3.2 percent said they have attempted to kill themselves. While 2 percent of those attempts were planned, 1.2 percent of them were made on impulse.
Women were twice as likely to have attempted suicide, the survey found.
Family issues were the most cited factor leading to suicide attempts, followed by financial difficulties, separation or divorce and disease.
More than half the people who attempted suicide had psychological problems such as depression and alcoholism.
“Serious consideration of suicide was found to start one or two years before people put into action their plans. Prevention efforts should be made in this period,” said Jeon Hong-jin, professor of psychiatry at Seoul Samsung Hospital, who headed the survey.
“Even though family conflicts or financial difficulties can accelerate suicide, focusing on psychological vulnerability is more important for prevention,” he added.
The survey result was conducted for the Journal of Affective Disorders, the official journal of the International Society for Affective Disorders.
