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Suicide Websites Made Illegal in U.K.

by Tim Stevens on September 18, 2008 at 02:12 PM

Suicide Websites Made Illegal in U.K.
In the wake of a still-growing suicide-pact crisis in the U.K., largely fueled by Web sites that either heap praise on those who've killed themselves or give encouragement for those who are thinking about it, the British government has expanded a 1961 suicide promotion law, explicitly banning the promotion of suicide on Web sites.

The 47-year-old Suicide Act already covered suicide-related sites, but as of now, none had actually been prosecuted or shut down because of it. The change in language makes it blatantly clear that these sites are indeed illegal, but as we've seen before, shutting down illegal sites in just one nation is a tricky thing. Earlier this year, Wikileaks was ruled illegal in a California court, which took steps to block it. However, multiple other versions popped up around the world offering access to exactly the same information through different URLs. Two weeks later, the court relented and up went the main site again.

Will the British government find more success than ours did? That remains to be seen. [From: BBC News]

Tags: censorship, suicide, suicide act, suicide pact, SuicideAct, SuicidePact, uk

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