'Toxic' sites in web suicide link

Demands are growing for tough measures to combat "toxic" content on social networking websites after a Bebo site was linked to a string of suicides.

New Zealand authorities have been contacted over seven suicides in Bridgend, South Wales, that have been linked to a Bebo website called Suicide Girls.

The website is a community of wannabe teenage models.

Some of the dead had Bebo profiles.

The Suicide Girls post suggestive photos of themselves in a bid for online fame.

Fans of the group post messages hailing members.

Kayleigh Davidson wrote on the page for "Quinne Suicide": "You guys are so pretty. I envy you so much xxx."

Kelly Kidd wrote: "i love her. i would SO love to be a suicide girl!"

"Sibbi" added: "Suicide Girls are an inspiration to all girls."

The group does not actively encourage suicide but local experts fear some young people are vulnerable to the glamorisation of suicide.

Youthline spokesman Stephen Bell said such groups encouraged a "culture that this is a normal way of dealing with life's stresses and strains".

"With the overlay that somehow it's a glamorous thing to do, with links to celebrities, then you've got a really toxic environment."

Some New Zealand students were involved in similar, but more hidden, invite-only self-harm sites "that are on the continuum to the suicide communities".

Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker said it was the responsibility of Bebo and other social networking sites like Facebook to monitor pages for at-risk youths.

"Anybody else who invites a whole lot of young people into a physical space - we'd be saying to them, you're responsible for their safety while they're there."

Cocker said users should have quick access to appropriate and qualified support services.

In December last year, Bebo launched an online platform for information, support and advice for its users in Britain and Ireland.

This month, Bebo was named the safest and most user-friendly of 10 social networking sites in a poll conducted by British magazine Computing Which?

However, concerns had been raised about the emergence of online "memorial pages".

Natasha Randall, the last Bridgend victim, has a memorial page in her honour on the Bebo website, titled, "RIP Tasha".

Meanwhile, Dunedin woman Sophie Elliott - allegedly killed by her former boyfriend - had her Facebook page taken down this week, after her parents expressed shock at details about her life posted online.

The director of Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand, Merryn Statham, said memorial sites could "provide motivation for distressed young people to emulate the behaviour of those that are being memorialised".

However, Bell said memorial pages "can be quite a good thing".

"The reality is, a lot of communication by young people is by texts or on the net now."

Grieving young people also needed personal contact to deal with loss, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News