Yahoo News London woman takes her own life using suicide manual with pictures found online
A coroner has sounded the alarm over the availability of online suicide material after a woman took her own life with the aid of an instructional printout. Miranda Avanzi, 58, hung herself at home on July 9, 2024, leaving a note of intent and instructions not to save her.
Now area coroner for Inner North London Ian Potter has written to Ofcom and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, raising concerns about Ms Avanzi's ability to access instructions on how to end her own life. An inquest held on Tuesday, November 12, heard police found a printout from a blog post close to her body while investigating the circumstances.
The 10-page document contained a step-by-step guide (with the inclusion of pictures and diagrams) on how to ‘succeed’ in ending one’s life. Mr Potter said 'it was clear' the guide had successfully been followed by Ms Avanzi.
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While it was not obvious which website or forum the guide came from, Mr Potter also said he was concerned about the easy availability of sources cited on the document, which could be found online using a search engine.
"Just a basic search on Google or other search engines, reveals a significant number of forums and blogs, where users are able to obtain all manner of guides to completing suicide. Many of these sites have no, or no useful requirement for any type of age verification," he wrote.
"The search engine suggests, at the top of the page, that help is available by dialling 999, which would appear to be an acknowledgement that the content resulting from the search is likely to be concerning and that person undertaking the search is likely already highly vulnerable.
"I am concerned that the ready availability of such information, that provides clear instructions and advice for individuals wanting to end their own life at their own hands is of the utmost concern."
The Government and Ofcom has until January 9 to respond to Mr Potter's prevention of future deaths report which was issued this week.
An Ofcom spokesperson told MyLondon: “The Coroner has raised significant issues that highlight the urgent need for platforms to do more to protect people from harmful content online, and we’ll be responding directly to them. From next month, tech firms will be legally required to start taking action under the UK’s Online Safety Act, meaning 2025 will be a pivotal year in creating a safer life online.”
The Online Safety Act, which was introduced in 2023, compels websites to rapidly remove illegal suicide and self-harm content and proactively protect users from content that is illegal under the 1961 Suicide Act. It is not in force yet.
Ofcom explained: "Parliament set us a deadline of April 2025 to finalise our codes on illegal harms, and we will finalise these December, four months ahead of this deadline.
"At this point, tech firms will have three months to assess the risk of illegal content on their platforms – including encouraging or assisting suicide – and will then be required to take appropriate steps to stop it appearing, and act quickly to remove it when they become aware of it.
"We expect companies to be prepared to comply with their new duties when they come into force. If they don’t, we’re prepared to use the full extent of our enforcement powers when the time comes."
Once in force, Ofcom can enforce the Act through fines of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of a company's worldwide revenue. Ofcom will also have the power to take criminal action against companies and hold senior managers criminally liable.
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