Live streaming of a person committing suicide negatively impacts citizens.
By Lanka Samanth
Bangalore, April 11, 2019: Some write a death note when committing suicide. But instead, in recent days a few people have live-streamed their suicide, or attempt, on social media platforms. Live streaming applications like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram are becoming sadly famous for increasing suicide rates.
However, an attempt to kill oneself is a crime. “Most of the suicide live streamed cases are reported in the media and registered by the police; the people involved in such cases are in the age group 18 to 30,” said an official from the State Crime Records Bureau of Bangalore.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) conducted a study that examined suicide-related sites that can be found using Internet search engines. Out of 373 website hits, 31% were suicide neutral, 29% were anti-suicide, and 11% were pro-suicide
Psychiatrists say not all suicide attempts are real, some threaten with suicide to seek attention. “The intent of committing the act may be to end their life or to threaten someone or to convey a message to somebody,” said Dr Madan, Psychiatrist at Rajarajeshwari Hospital.
According to Madan, the live streaming of suicide is something happening more now. This might be due to some disorder or to grab the attention of someone. Whereas, a few commit or attempt suicide with a real intention to die due to whatever reasons. Some commit due to family and relationship issues.
As Madan said, most of the reported cases are due to relationship issues between husband and wife; a farmer from the Tumakuru district committed suicide after relationship issues with his wife. A girl committed suicide due to her health issue in Mysore in January 2019.
“The act of suicide live streaming on social media platform is a threat to society. Some people might feel afraid of such activities, but few tend towards the attention seeking and perform the same. In case of any such contents steamed in any social media, it should be reported immediately,” said Madan.
“Attempt to suicide or intend to commit suicide is a punishable offence under the Indian Penal Code,” said High Court Lawyer Brijeshan “If action is not taken against inappropriate content on any social media platform after reporting the post, is against the law.”
According to the data by the World Health Organization (WHO), close to 800,000 people die of suicide every year, that is one person every forty seconds.
