User:Yuz82/sandbox

Suicide Pacts
A suicide pact is an agreement between two or more people to die by suicide at a particular time and often by the same lethal means. Traditional suicide pacts have typically developed among individuals who know each other, such as a couple of friends. While a suicide pact that has been formed or developed in some way through the use of the Internet is a cybersuicide pact. A primary difference between cybersuicide pacts and traditional suicide pacts is that these pacts are usually formed among complete strangers. They use online chat rooms and virtual bulletiin boards and forums as an unmediated avenue to share their feelings with other like-minded individuals, which can be easier than talking about such thoughts and feelings in person. The first documented use of the Internet to form a suicide pact was reported in Japan in 2000. It has now become a more common form of suicide in Japan, where the suicide rate increased from 34 suicides in 2003 to 91 suicides in 2005. South Korea now has one of the world’s highest suicide rates (24.7/100 000 in 2005), and evidence exists that cybersuicide pacts may account for almost one third of suicides in that country.

Media Contagion Effect
Internet not only reports suicide incidents but documents suicide methods. Social media platforms are widely used to spread information on methods to suicide, such as chat rooms, discussion board, even video-sharing web sites. This brings another concern, which is the increasing risk of the media contagion effect, especially among the youth. A recent study by Dunlop et al. specifically examined possible contagion effects on suicidal behavior via the Internet and social media. Of 719 individuals aged 14 to 24 years, 79% reported being exposed to suicide- related content through family, friends, and traditional news media such as newspapers, and 59% found such content through Internet sources. These information may pose a harzard for vulnerable groups by influencing decisions to die by suicide. In particular, interactions via chat rooms or discussion forums may foster peer pressure to die by suicide, encourage users to idolize those who have completed suicide, or facilitate suicide pacts.

Cyberbullicide
Cyberbullying, when directly or indirectly linked to suicide, has been referred to as cyberbullicide. Cyberbullying and cyber harassment are two prevalent ways to lead to prosuicide behavior. Cyberbullying typically refers to when a child or adolescent is intentionally and repeatedly targeted by another child or teen in the form of threats or harassments or humili- ated or embarrassed by means of cellular phones or Internet technologies such as e-mail, texting, social networking sites, or instant messaging. Cyber harassment and cyber stalking typically refer to these same actions when they involve adults. A review of data collected between 2004 and 2010 via survey studies indicated that lifetime cyberbullying victimization rates ranged from 20.8% to 40.6% and offending rates ranged from 11.5% to 20.1%.