2010 Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 133-151
The purpose of this study was to clarify problems of suicide bulletin board systems (BBSs) in order to create a suicide-preventive community on the Internet. The data was collected in emails from 22 users of suicide BBSs, and then analyzed using the Grounded Theory Approach (one of the qualitative methods). As a result of the analysis, some categories were obtained. The result suggested that problems of suicide BBSs were classified under two categories: “Cost of counseling each other in decision-making processes”, and “Harmful effects of counseling each other”. The former was a problem that users felt before counseling, and decreased users’ activities (e.g.,sending empathetic message to other users). The latter was related with the long-term effects of access to the BBSs, and increased the risk of suicide. In addition, it was suggested that addiction to the BBSs caused by experiencing a temporary mental relief created a vicious cycle of habitual suicidal behavior (e.g., self-injury).
