Facebook and Suicidal Behaviour: User Experiences of Suicide Notes, Live-Streaming, Grieving and Preventive Strategies—A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Facebook represents a new dimension for global information sharing. Suicidal behaviours and attempts are increasingly reported on Facebook. This scoping review explores the various aspects of suicidal behaviours associated with Facebook, discussing the challenges and preventive measures. Methods: PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus were searched for related articles published in English up to October 2021, using different combinations of “Facebook” and “suicide”. A group of experts comprising consultant psychiatrists screened the records and read the full-text articles to extract relevant data. Twenty-eight articles were chosen as relevant and included in the review under four selected themes. Results: Facebook impacts on suicidal behaviours in different aspects. Announcing suicides through sharing notes or personal information may lead to the prediction of suicide but be harmful to the online audience. Live-streaming videos of suicide is another aspect that questions Facebook’s ability to monitor shared contents that can negatively affect the audience. A positive impact is helping bereaved families to share feelings and seek support online, commemorating the lost person by sharing their photos. Moreover, it can provide real-world details of everyday user behaviours, which help predict suicide risk, primarily through novel machine-learning techniques, and provide early warning and valuable help to prevent it. It can also provide a timeline of the user’s activities and state of mind before suicide. Conclusions: Social media can detect suicidal tendencies, support those seeking help, comfort family and friends with their grief, and provide insights via timelining the users’ activities leading to their suicide. One of the limitations was the lack of quantitative studies evaluating preventative efforts on Facebook. The creators’ commitment and the users’ social responsibility will be required to create a mentally healthy Facebook environment.

Epidemiological characteristics and behaviors of online broadcast suicidality in China: implications for targeted prevention strategies

“…However, fast-paced lifestyles and high levels of internal migration may exacerbate other new sources of stress ( 12 ). Of concern is that online suicide attempts and completion rates appear to be increasing, showcasing the individual’s internal struggles encompassing feelings of dissatisfaction, insecurity, isolation, and negative self-perception ( 5 , 13 , 14 ). Our study systematically examined the epidemiological characteristics of online broadcasts of suicidality in China, providing valuable evidence and insights for the development of future public awareness campaigns.…”

#chatsafe 2.0. updated guidelines to support young people to communicate safely online about self-harm and suicide: A Delphi expert consensus study

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The steps that young people and suicide prevention professionals think the social media industry and policymakers should take to improve online safety. A nested cross-sectional study within a Delphi consensus approach

“…There was agreement that platforms should provide content warnings for potentially harmful content including content containing self-harm or suicide-related hashtags. As noted above, there is mixed evidence regarding the efficacy of content warnings (11,12) and in the overarching Delphi study (23) consensus was not reached about their inclusion. However, in the study conducted by the Samaritans (11), and the current study, participants believed these would be useful, particularly if they were specific to the subject matter and contained links to helpful resources.…”