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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by Dr. Bob on July 22, 2001, at 13:34:44
[from http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/tele/20010601/msgs/57.html]
> The link below is to a Medscape MedTech article on "Psychiatry via the Internet: Benefits, Risks and Perspectives" from "The First International Symposium on the Internet and Psychiatry" held April 5-6, 2001, in Munich, Ger.
>
http://pharmacotherapy.medscape.com/Medscape/TechMed/journal/2001/v01.n01/mtm0709.01.kenn/mtm0709.01.kenn-01.html
>
> I was amused/interested to see H. Rheingold was a participant--he pioneered the notion of electronic community with "The Well" eons ago in California. The rest of the world is just now beginning to "get it"--decades later; got to give him points for persistence.
>
> If anyone else is interested in perusing this article, impressions and/or comments would be welcome.There are a couple I thought were relevant to us here. I'll comment on them separately.
> Evaluation and Prevention of Suicidal Activities in the Internet
>
> In recent months, the European media has reported a number of suicide cases that were associated with Internet activity. Bernhard Otupal of the Austrian Government Ministry of the Interior described 3 incidences of suicide in which communication over the Internet preceded the suicide. According to Otupal, an additional 2 suicides attempts could have possibly been deterred by appropriate intervention. In all these cases, the victims had made up their minds to commit suicide but, before doing so, they wanted to communicate, and chose the Internet as their medium.
>
> Austria's Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior computer crime prevention unit launched an investigation into the influence of the Internet on these cases. The office found numerous Web pages, mailing lists, and newsgroups under the topic "suicide." Many of them offer qualified assistance. Some Internet sites under the suicide heading, however, go into a "doubtful and dangerous direction." Calls are made for mass suicides, offering information about suicide methods. Others discuss group obligations toward suicide, and several provide sources for poisons and weapons. Voyeuristically motivated pressures on desperate people by some forum users can encourage this behavior. Similar to many crimes committed via the Internet, no regulations exist to prevent such sites from promoting or instructing people in suicide. The speed and worldwide availability of data transmission and information exchange, generally considered an advantage of the Internet, are a liability here...http://pharmacotherapy.medscape.com/Medscape/TechMed/journal/2001/v01.n01/mtm0709.01.kenn/mtm0709.01.kenn-03.html
http://www.psynet-congress.de/abstracts_otupal.htmSome of you may remember that this has also come up here. Otupal has a governmental perspective, so it's not surprising that he mentions "regulations", but here, anyway, there are freedom of speech issues. So I think we're stuck with the "moderating host" Stein referred to. But it's not always easy for the host to know where to draw the line or how to respond!
Bob
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