According to research done by JAMA Internal Medicine, Google searches related to suicide have increased since the release of controversial Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.
13 Reasons Why has caused much debate since it premiered. The show, which is based on a book by Clay Jensen, follows the story of a young girl who commits suicide and then leaves a series of tapes documenting the circumstances that led to her taking her own life.
She shames those to did harm to her, and many people feel that the show glamourises suicide.
JAMA Internal Medicine used Google Trends to investigate the number of searches on suicide, including “how to kill yourself”.
Their research showed a significant increase in queries (19%) in the 19 days following the launch of 13 Reasons Why.
One positive of this increase was that terms like “suicide hotline” and “suicide prevention” were among the search terms they found higher volumes of.
However, “how to commit suicide” and “commit suicide” did come up in their findings.
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