The broadcast of “13 Reasons Why”, last March, had created controversy. At the heart of this controversy? The theme of the series, which tells the story of a young girl ending her life, through the audio cassettes she left with one of her friends. American researchers were interested in the real impact of this Netflix creation, for the purposes of a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. What they discovered is disturbing: since the release of “13 Reasons Why”, internet searches on the suicide jumped up.
Between 900,000 and 1.5 million additional requests
The study began on March 31, the day of the broadcast of the first episode of the series, and ended on April 18, the day before the suicide of the American football player Aaron Hernandez, so that the data is not distorted. The elements collected were then compared to those collected during the three months preceding the broadcast of the series. Scientists have observed that queries Google relating to suicide had increased by 19% in the 19 days following the broadcast of “13 Reasons Why”. Between 900,000 and 1.5 million additional searches on this subject have thus been carried out. The researchers also point out that during this period, the query “How to kill yourself” jumped 26%, those containing the keywords “To kill yourself” increased by 18% while the query “How to end in his days” increased by 9%.
To counter the effects of this series, which they consider “harmful”, the authors of the study refer to the recommendations the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). They advise media professionals not to use language that normalizes suicide or to avoid providing detailed information about the act. “We urge Netflix to stop broadcasting the series and modify it to comply with WHO recommendations before rebroadcasting it,” concludes John Ayers, co-author of the study, interviewed by AFP.
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