Suicide prevention for social networks
Posted by JohnF | Posted in Facebook, Twitter | Posted on 14-10-2009
Tags: Facebook, myspace, suicide prevention, twitter
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SOCIAL network sites including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace could be scanned for depressed and “at risk” users under a bold new program to combat youth suicide.
The rise in popularity in social networking could allow authorities to spot users at risk and offer help, researchers believe.
Researches from New Zealand’s Victoria University say they have devised a program that scans posts to identify key words that people aged between 18 and 24 are using.
A high proportion of key words could mean that the blogger is at risk of depression, suicide, self-harm or harming others, the researches believe.
“Our technology picks up words or phrases such as ‘depressed’, or ‘I don’t want to live any more’ or ‘I want to kill somebody’,” Dr Tiong-Thye Goh said.
“We analyse the database of phrases and rank them according to frequency of use – if certain key words are used a lot it is likely that the particular person may be emotionally depressed.”
Read more…Suicide prevention for social networks | News | News.com.au