Visit the Ironworks Gaming Website Email the Webmaster Graphics Library Rules and Regulations Help Support Ironworks Forum with a Donation to Keep us Online - We rely totally on Donations from members Donation goal Meter

Ironworks Gaming Radio

Ironworks Gaming Forum

Go Back   Ironworks Gaming Forum > Ironworks Gaming Forums > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 02-08-2005, 10:47 PM   #1
johnny
40th Level Warrior
 
Ms Pacman Champion
Join Date: April 15, 2002
Location: Utrecht The Netherlands
Age: 58
Posts: 16,981
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme...ht/4071805.stm

In Japan, the internet has been blamed for a spate of group suicides which appear to have been arranged in online chat rooms.

Andrew Harding talked to one young man searching for someone to die with.

Naoki Tachiwana opened his apartment door with a surprisingly warm smile, and beckoned us in to a neat living room. His computer was switched on - the screen facing out towards Naoki's eleventh floor balcony, and the night sky above Tokyo's eastern suburbs.

"Last night I was up all night," said Naoki, smiling again, "talking online to this woman who really - I mean really - wants to die. She asked me to do it with her today, but I said I couldn't because I had this television crew coming to see me. So she said we can do it after they've gone."

It had taken days of online research, emails and text messages to bring us here - face to face with a member of Japan's "internet suicide" community.


Naoki Tachiwana has searched the web for a suicide partner
It is a growing, and morbidly frank underworld of chat rooms and websites with names like "Suicide Club," where thousands of (mainly young) people meet and talk and plan their deaths.

At least 26 people have died in this manner in the past two months.

Death ads

The message boards are littered with personal ads like: "I have pills and charcoal briquettes - I'm looking for someone to die with," and "I'm 23 and want to die. I can travel anywhere."

I asked Naoki - a 34-year-old bank employee who has been off work with stress-related problems for six months - why he was considering joining a suicide group.

"Well, I'm depressed - and that's a disease," he said. "But to be honest, I think I've always been interested in killing myself." His enormous cat jumped down from a shelf and waddled over to the computer screen.

"I'd never thought about doing it in a group before," he continued. "But then I visited a website and thought - ah, if I join this I won't have to go through with it on my own. It's like crossing the road when the traffic light is red... it's not so scary when you're with others."

High suicide rate

In recent months, dozens of Japanese have crossed that road together. In the last fortnight alone three groups of three people, and two groups of four have been found dead - usually gassed in cars on remote mountain roads.


Ama Terasu says it can be difficult to back-out of suicide pacts
Japan already has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and so far the internet-related deaths are only a small proportion. But it's a growing one.

"It's almost like a cult... these internet groups," argues Yukiko Nishihara, a Tokyo helpline worker. "When people are lonely and suicidal - but afraid of death - they find these websites which egg them on. There's an inhuman element to it."

But others see the sites very differently.

"There's nothing bad about suicide," said Wataru Tsurumi, author of a graphic, and best-selling handbook on the subject. "We have no religion or laws here in Japan telling us otherwise. As for group suicides - before the internet people would write letters, or make phone calls... it's always been part of our culture."

Ghoulish as many of the sites are - complete with skulls and dripping blood - many of their owners argue that they do more good than harm. Late one night in a crowded internet café in central Tokyo, we met up with a shy 24-year-old who wanted to be known by his online nickname - Ama Terasu.

"My site has a message board, and chat rooms and links to other sites," he told me. "It's a virtual world where you can talk about subjects you can't discuss in real life.

'Vicious sites'


Mirrors have been installed on some Japanese train platforms to deter suicides
"There are some vicious sites which really encourage people to die, and when you get in a group there's a momentum which makes it hard to stop - people become irrational. But my site is not like that. I started it because I had tried twice to kill myself.

"I think it has saved my life - because it has enabled me to open up about things online. And I believe it can help others too."

Back in his small apartment, Naoki was still weighing up his options. He told me that he'd come close to killing himself the day before with another person, but that she'd pulled out at the last minute.

"This time," he said, "it's me who has got cold feet. I told the other woman who wanted to do it today that I was not ready to die so suddenly."
__________________
johnny is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2005, 11:14 PM   #2
Spirits forever
Guest
 

Posts: n/a
that's creepy.....
  Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 01:07 AM   #3
Ilander
20th Level Warrior
 

Join Date: December 28, 2003
Location: Kentucky
Age: 38
Posts: 2,820
Yeah, thank goodness for the inverted pyramid style of newswriting...what with all the important details being up front, I don't have to read the last half of that...man, that's crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean seriously strange and unnerving.
__________________

Is that what you really want to say?
Ilander is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 01:25 AM   #4
Harkoliar
Jack Burton
 

Join Date: March 21, 2001
Location: Philippines, but now Harbor City Sydney
Age: 40
Posts: 5,556
i once helped a friend of mine who wanted to kill himself. i told him "go ahead and do it.. BUT before you do it, just think .. you can die anytime you want. because once youve done it.. its over. so live on first and think about this."

he is still alive [img]smile.gif[/img]

talking about death may be creepy but i for one think its something these guys should talk about. you know.. not letting them keep that emotion of suicide bottled up inside. people who are usually depressed try to bottle things up inside and an online chat may be just a wierd way to call "counseling". who knows, it may be the ticket to save thier life.

my 2c.
__________________

Catch me if you can..
Harkoliar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 03:24 AM   #5
Kakero
40th Level Warrior
 

Join Date: March 24, 2002
Posts: 10,215
I've been to such websites before. Donno why I go there. Bored maybe? I was interested to know why they want to commit suicide. Very stupid of me uh? I nearly been persuaded by one girl to commit suicide together and join her after death. She supplied me some cynide pill. Thanks goodness I didn't join her. After hearing her death sometimes later from the news I stop from going to such websites. It reminds me of her.
Kakero is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 05:04 PM   #6
Q'alooaith
Emerald Dragon
 

Join Date: December 10, 2003
Location: UK
Age: 40
Posts: 961
Quote:
Originally posted by Harkoliar:
...people who are usually depressed try to bottle things up inside and an online chat may be just a wierd way to call "counseling"....
Can totaly agree with this sentiment, if you can't find help, or don't want to admit weakness to thouse nearest to you often a stranger is the only person who can show you the road again.


It's better to be able to talk to somone when your down, even if they are just as depressed as you are, because it eases the lonelyness which is becoming a part of modern day living.
__________________
-Jenn
Q'alooaith is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 05:53 PM   #7
Jorath Calar
Harper
 

Join Date: October 6, 2001
Location: Iceland
Posts: 4,706
As someone who has lost a friend to suicide and seriously thought about doing it myself in a very low hour of my life, I'm pretty appaled by this.

Why aren't these sites instead trying to help people who come there and are thinking about this?
Jorath Calar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 05:58 PM   #8
johnny
40th Level Warrior
 
Ms Pacman Champion
Join Date: April 15, 2002
Location: Utrecht The Netherlands
Age: 58
Posts: 16,981
Quote:
Originally posted by Jorath Calar:
As someone who has lost a friend to suicide and seriously thought about doing it myself in a very low hour of my life, I'm pretty appaled by this.

Why aren't these sites instead trying to help people who come there and are thinking about this?
That's the whole point, they actually think they ARE helping them.
__________________
johnny is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 06:16 PM   #9
Vaskez
Takhisis Follower
 

Join Date: April 30, 2001
Location: szép Magyarország (well not right now)
Posts: 5,089
There're some sick people out there. I personally think life is a gift and we often don't deserve it. People who encourage suicide really don't deserve it. Of course some are kids too young to understand.
__________________
Too set in his ways to ever relate
If he could set that aside, there'd be heaven to pay
But weathered and aged, time swept him to grave
Love conquers all? Damn, I'd say that area's gray
Vaskez is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2005, 06:18 PM   #10
Jerry_Seinfeld
The Magister
 

Join Date: December 9, 2004
Location: VA
Age: 35
Posts: 114
People egging eachother on to die... thats just sad.... (and I mean sad not pathetic)
__________________
<img border=\"0\" alt=\"[monster3]\" title=\"\" src=\"graemlins/monster3.gif\" />
Jerry_Seinfeld is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Depressing reading - Britain's forgotten communities shamrock_uk General Discussion 6 10-20-2004 04:17 PM
IE Modding Communities icelus Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn & Throne of Bhaal 7 05-01-2004 04:07 PM
Weird guy OLAF TRYGGRYSON Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn & Throne of Bhaal 7 12-04-2003 08:04 AM
Help me please with this weird bug that I have Xen Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn & Throne of Bhaal 20 08-01-2003 07:08 PM
Weird... weird feeling... Bahamut General Conversation Archives (11/2000 - 01/2005) 17 12-10-2001 09:01 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:16 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©2024 Ironworks Gaming & ©2024 The Great Escape Studios TM - All Rights Reserved