Introduction
The deeply complex issue of suicide is the result of interplay of several social,
psychological and environmental factors. In this digital age, rapid spread of digital
connectivity has magnified the complexity of suicide alongwith corresponding increase
of incidents of cyber-suicide. This stands out as one of the severe negative effects of
digital revolution.
It is slowly becoming a new normal which is evidenced by statement
of Kerala CM Pinarayi that internet addiction prompted 25 children to suicide since
2019.A similar trend has been observed in states all over India both pre and post 2019. It
raises concern over sustainability of digital ecosystem in preserving right to life and
privacy which are some of the core components of constitutional jurisprudence.
At this stage, it is crucial not to overlook the gravity of the issue as the expected increase of these
incidents in future hints at a crisis of mental health and privacy of various persons cut
across different gender and age groups. In this background, it is essential to rightly shape
public and legal discourse on cyber suicide in India.
Research Objectives
To identify the classified forms of cyber-suicide prevalent in India.
To explore relation between cyber-suicide and cyber-crime.
To identify the groups which are vulnerable to cyber-suicide
To examine the legal provisions concerning of cyber-suicide in India and recommend
measures to curb cyber-suicide in India.
Research Question
What are the four major types of cyber-suicide which are committed more frequently in
India while also exploring the influence of other cyber-crimes on these cyber-suicides? Who is more vulnerable to commit cyber-suicide and what are the reasons behind such
vulnerability?
What are the existing legal provisions of to deal with cyber-suicide and how can these
provisions become more stringent to curb the rising instances of cyber-suicide?
What are the other statistical and societal measures which can be undertaken to curb the
rising instances of cyber-suicide?
Research Methodology
- To achieve the objectives of the research, information was taken from various
international statutes, research papers, articles, news articles and official websites of
UN and was critically analyzed i.e. doctrinal approach is primarily used in this
research paper. Further, exploratory data analysis was done using I) Content analysis
method to explore connection between cyber-crimes and cyber-suicides and discover
the vulnerable groups alongwith gender prone to commit cyber-suicide. II)
Questionnaire was used to check the public awareness of people about cyber-suicide. - The categorization and detailed analysis of challenges is systematically done for ensuring smooth flow of the argument. Thereafter, recommendations and solutions are formulated which may become basis for further research.
Literature Review :
Some of the major literature works which are aligned with my research topic and
demonstrate the intellectual progression in this field are stated below:
- Associations Between Time Spent Using Social Media and Internalizing and
Externalizing Problems Among US Youth, JAMA Psychiatry, September 11,2019: It was
helpful only to the extent of finding co-relation between usage of social media and
behavioral changes in children. - Raphael Cohen-Almagor & Sam Lehman-Wilzig (2022) Digital Promotion of Suicide: A
Platform-Level Ethical Analysis, Journal of Media Ethics, 37:2, 108-127, DOI:
10.1080/23736992.2022.2057994, 29 March,2022 - Ri Ria Birbal,Cybersuicide and the Adolescent Population: Challenges of the future?2009
- United Nations Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications
Technologies for Criminal Purposes (Draft 29 June 2021) - Ang Li,Stigmatising attitude across cyber suicides and offline suicides: Content analysis
of Sina Weibo,Journal of Medical Internet Research - James G. Phillips, Instances of online suicide, the law and potential
solutions,Psychiatry,Pscychology and Law - 25 children committed suicide in
Kerala,https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2022/aug/29/internet-addictiondrove-25-children-to-suicide-since-2019-kerala-cmpinaryi-vijayan-2492478.html (last
visited 15 Dec,2023) - Assam Student Falls Prey To Cyber Crime, Dies By Suicide, available
at: https://guwahatitimes.com/2022/03/assam-student-falls-prey-to-cyber-crime-diesby-suicide/ ( last visited on December 26, 2023). - Assam: Chandmari woman’s death linked to cyber fraud, one arrested, available
at: https://www.indiatodayne.in/assam/story/assam-chandmari-womans-death-linkedto-cyber-fraud-one-arrested-679627-2023-09-17 (last visited on December 26, 2023). - Man posts suicide note in FB, cyber team of Assam Police cracks the location & saves
him, available at: https://way2barak.com/man-posts-suicide-note-in-fb-cyber-team-ofassam-police-cracks-the-location-saves-him/(last visited on December 26, 2023). - Assam woman saved from committing suicide after being alerted by Facebook, available
at: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/assam-woman-saved-from-committingsuicide-after-being-alerted-by-facebook-799408.html(last visited on December 26,
2023). - Bhopal: Family of 4 committed suicide after cyber hacking, theft; requested for collective
cremation in suicide letter, available
at: https://organiser.org/2023/07/13/183574/bharat/bhopal-family-of-4-committedsuicide-after-cyber-hacking-and-theft-asked-for-a-collective-cremation/(last visited on
December 28, 2023). - Cyberbullying: Kerala woman ends life, male ‘friend’ booked, available
at: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala-woman-ends-life-cyberbullying-malefriend-booked-8587307/ (last visited on December 28, 2023). - 16-year-old commits suicide after receiving fake message in name of cybercell, available
at: https://keralakaumudi.com/en/news/mobile/news.php?id=1160006&u=16-year-oldcommits-suicide-after-receiving-fake-message-in-name-of-cybercell-1160006 (last
visited on December 28, 2023). - Boy ends life in Kerala after receiving fake message in name of NCRB, available
at: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/kerala/boy-ends-life-after-receiving-fakemessage-in-name-of-ncrb-2706174 (last visited on January 1, 2024). - Woman’s suicide over cyber harassment: Kerala police issues lookout notice against
accused, available at: https://www.news9live.com/state/kerala/womans-suicide-keralapolice-issues-lookout-notice-against-accused-au1332-2126457 (last visited on January 1,
2024). - Homophobia in Kerala Takes a Toll on LGBTQIA+ Community, with Cases of Suicides
Rising, available at:https://en.themooknayak.com/lgbtq-news/homophobia-in-keralatakes-a-toll-on-lgbtqia-community-with-cases-of-suicides-rising(last visited on January 1,
2024). - Tragic Suicide in Kerala: Woman’s Family Alleges Cyberbullying by Ex-Boyfriend Led to
Her Death, available at: https://bnnbreaking.com/world/tragic-suicide-in-keralawomans-family-alleges-cyberbullying-by-ex-boyfriend-led-to-her-death/(last visited on
January 2, 2024). - How alert from Meta helped MP cops save girl from suicide, available
at: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/madhya-pradesh-cops-save-girl-attemptingsuicide-on-instagram-live-2379757-2023-05-16(last visited on January 2, 2024). - Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023)
- Information Technology Act (2000)
- United Nations Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications
Technologies for Criminal Purposes (Draft 29 June 2021)
Various aforesaid news websites helped me in exploratory data analysis using content
analysis method. The author has consolidated all the resultant findings in this research
paper to identify the vulnerable age groups and gender more susceptible to commit cybersuicide in India.
Moreover, some of the aforesaid journals helped me in understanding
various types of suicide and relation between usage of internet and cyber-suicide. Some
of the studies on cyber-suicides have also focused their attention on occurrence of cybersuicide in foreign countries.
The statues were analyzed to understand the existing legal
regime concerning cyber-suicide. However, the rigorous study about cyber suicide
disclosed that legality of cyber suicide in India is not well documented. This research gap
led me to formulate this topic.
Origin and meaning :
The word suicide is derived modern Latin word “suicidium” which is a combination of
“sui”-i.e. oneself and “cidum” i.e. a killing. It means deliberate killing of oneself. The
addition of the term cyber with suicide is naturally indicative of association of virtual
reality computers and information technology with the suicide.
National Library of Medicine defined cyber-suicide as “Suicide associated with
websites that lure vulnerable members of society and empower them with various
methods and approaches to deliberate self harm.”
Types of Cyber-Suicides :
- Suicide Pact: The rise of online communities has led to devastating emergence of
suicide pacts. It socially reinforces deeply stigmatized act. In this type of suicide, predetermined mutual agreements are made among several persons connected together through online platforms to end their life together. In practical terms, it is also witnessed that several families/couple jointly commit suicide on account of online harassment/cyber-bullying/extortion to main head of the family. It is sometimes also referred as mass suicide. The terminology of mass suicide can be preferably used in cases where one/two individuals of the group jointly committing suicide is incapable of giving consent in the eyes of law. - Live-stream suicide: The social media apps have become a platform for various individuals to express their emotions and post the activities of their daily lives. The term live-stream suicide is a very wide term which is inclusive of expression of one’s suicidal thoughts in form of messages, picture of suicide notes, caption under own picture to live streaming of the act of committing suicide through various social media platforms. The social media apps which act as intermediary may help in preventing such suicides by sending an alert to cyber-police.
- Suicides due to cyber-crimes: This type of cyber-suicide indicates the tragic and intricate relationship that suicides share with other crimes such as cyber-bullying, cyberhacking, and extortion. The psychological trauma inflicted by these cyber-crimes lead to drastic incidents of suicides. In other words, it must be acknowledged that these cybercrimes act as a catalyst for increasing prevalence of suicides.
- Copy cat suicide: It primarily occurs on account of romanticizing suicide in various social media platforms. This romanticism combined with general imitative behaviour of a vulnerable individual on account of exposure to another suicide triggers several othersuicides wherein more probably the method of committing suicide is imitated too. This spread of suicidal thoughts and consequent commission/ increase in risk of commission of suicide by several other vulnerable individuals within same school, geographical area or community is often referred to as suicidal contagion.
Cyber-suicide in India : Data Analysis with Results and Discussions:
Following methods were used for data analysis: a) Content Analysis Method b) Questionnaire
Outcome of Content Analysis Method:
A total of 20 popular cases were collected from various English and Hindi news websites
in the year 2020-2023 among different states in India. The key words “cyber-suicide” and
“suicide after cyber-bullying / cyber-hacking” in Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh,
Assam, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra were used to check the prevalence of
various types of cyber-suicide in India.
The term “Inter-State” was used to refer to cybersuicides wherein suicide took place in one state and cyber-crime occurred in another
state. The results of first search in the web platform i.e. popular reported cyber-suicides in
various news channels are presented in the form of pie chart. The content analysis method
was adopted I) To check the prevalence of aforementioned cyber-suicides in different
parts of India II) To use it for purely illustrative purposes for shaping legal and public
discourse in India. III)
To explore the relation between cyber-suicide and cyber-crime and
discover different age groups and gender prone to commit cyber-suicide.
- Pie chart 1 shows that 50% men are prone to commit suicide in comparison to 30%
women, 10% transgender and 10% mixed in case of suicide pact. - It reveals that men are more likely to be victims of cyber-suicide. It can be due to the fact
that men are more susceptible to watch pornographic material and find easy ways of
earning money which makes them fall in the trap of being victims of cyber-crimes such
as cyber-hacking, extortion and cyber-bullying. Such cyber-crimes are the leading cause
of cyber-suicides in India as revealed by subsequent pie charts of this study. - However, these results cannot be generalized on account of limited availability of data. It
is expected that proportion of victimization of women and transgender in case of cybersuicides is likely to rise in future
- Pie chart 2 shows that 35% of persons below 20 and 35% from the age group of 20-30 are
prone to commit suicide in comparison to 10% from the age group of 30-40 and 20%
from the mixed age group in case of suicide pact. - As a cumulative effect, it showcases that persons in the age group of 0-30 are more likely
to commit suicide. This can be due to the reason of unemployment, internet addiction and
desire to become more rich and popular in very short period of time.
- Pie chart 3 shows that 60% of cyber-suicides occur due to cyber-crimes in comparison to
25% attempt of live-streaming suicide, 5% live-streaming suicide and 10% suicide pact. - It must be noted that the term “attempt of live streaming suicide” reveals that persons who expressed their intention to commit suicide in various social media platforms were prevented from committing suicide due alert send by these intermediaries to the cyber police which is actually showcases a good preventive mechanism to deal with cybersuicides. This preventive mechanism must be strengthened in order the reduce the percentage of cyber-suicides. It also revealed prevalence of suicide pact by families and couples in India wherein the main head of the family is psychologically affected by cyber-crimes.
Outcome of Questionnaire :
A questionnaire was circulated among 20 respondents of age group 18-50 to check the
public awareness about prevalence of cyber-suicide.
- Pie chart 4 shows that 45% respondents were aware about the prevalence of cyber-suicide
in comparison to 40% who were unsure and 15% who were not aware about prevalence
of cyber-suicide.
- It showcases the need to create educational programs and public awareness programs to
create awareness about cyber-suicides in this rapidly changing digital world.
Legal Remedies :
It is imperative to revisit the existing remedies for prevention of cyber-suicide in India:
Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023:
In the aforesaid observations, cybercrimes such as cyber-hacking, cyber-bullying and
sextortion by a perpetrator can be identified as the leading cause of commission of cybersuicide. These offences squarely fall under the definition of abetment and criminal intimidation. This can be addressed by legal remedy of abetment of suicide u/s 105 and
106 of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and criminal intimidation u/s 349 of Bhartiya Nyaya
Sanhita.
Information Technology Act, 2000:
The abettor of cyber-suicide can be convicted u/s 67 r/w sec 67 A for publishing or
transmitting obscene material and sexually explicit material in electronic form.
Individuals who engage in impersonation through computer resource to commit cyberfraud and cyber-bullying can be prosecuted u/s 66D.Furthermore, threats of circulation of various morphed pornographic images and videos of the victim amounts to violation of
privacy u/s 66E. However, the act currently fails to explicitly criminalize cyber-suicide
and its various types.
- IT( Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules,
2021: These rules lay down following obligations for intermediary:- 1) To disable prohibited content: The intermediary must not knowingly entertain, host and disseminate illegal and harmful content. It is binding duty of the intermediary to disable the illegal and harmful content within 36 hours of becoming aware about the content. This swift response will enable them to reflect their commitment towards creation of safe digital spaces. However, it must preserve the disabled content for 90 days to facilitate swift investigations of cyber-crimes which led to cyber-suicides.
- 2) To promptly report cyber security incidents to CERT-in: It is incumbent upon the intermediary to promptly report any cyber-security incidents to esteemed Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). CERT-in is a distinguished body which is responsible for maintenance of cyber security in India.
- 3) To terminate access: The intermediary is entitled to terminate the access of one who violates the rules and protocols related to cyber laws.
- 4) To undertake reasonable measures: The intermediary shall also adhere to and implement appropriate security practices outlined in Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Information) Rules, 2011 to ensure the confidentiality and protection of sensitive personal information.
- 5) Appointment of grievance officer: Such an officer shall play a supervisory role and also address the grievances within one month of its receipt.
- Other measures: The other measures which can be availed by victims include
reporting in national cyber crime portal, reporting to POSH and CERT.
Recommendations :
The central pursuit of this research paper is to propose actionable recommendations to mitigate
the instances of cyber-suicides. These recommendations are:
- Need of separate definition, criminalization of cyber-suicide and its aggravated punishment: The increased accessibility of internet has led to corresponding increase of cyber-suicide. It must be noted that one who commits cybersuicide must not be treated as a criminal but as a victim. In this light, it has become critical to criminalize of abetment of cyber-suicide and criminal intimidation which led to
cyber-suicide under Information Technology Act, 2000. It will serve as a powerful deterrent for prevention of such cases and will also empower the law enforcement agencies to proactively investigate the cases of cyber-suicide. - In light of ubiquitous nature of internet and its grave impact upon vulnerable groups, the maximum punishment of abetment of cyber-suicide and criminal intimidation of cyber suicide should extend to 20 years for repeated offenders and offenders who have
committed multiple cyber-crimes in contrast to maximum 10 years punishment for abetment of suicide and maximum 7 years punishment (with addition of two years for anonymous communication) for aggravated criminal intimidation under Bhartiya Nyaya
Sanhita, 2023.
- To conduct 4-5 periodical counseling sessions of victims of cybersuicides: The root cause of suicide is disturbed mental health and alienation from society. In this light, it is essential to conduct 4-5 counseling sessions of the victims of cyber-suicides. The sessions must be conducted by professional psychiatrist and social workers who have minimum 3 year experience of dealing with victims of suicides. It
allows the victims to reintegrate themselves in the society and prevent further attempts of suicide. - International recognition of cyber-suicide: In the light of borderless nature of cyber-suicide, the traditional framework of criminalization of cyber-suicide must be combined with its international framework. The collective international response to cyber-suicide will help is overcoming barriers of geographical limitations and minimize its occurrence on a global level. It will provide the victim means to address the violation of his right. For this purpose, the draft of United Nations Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes which recognizes cyber-suicide under article 16 and 17 must be enacted.
- Release of data by NCRB: The NCRB must specifically release the data of cybersuicide cases on a yearly basis to help the legislators and law enforcement agencies quantify the rising cases of cyber-suicide. The gravity of the situation can be better understood with this national level data. Thereafter, steps can be undertaken to minimize the instances of cyber-suicide on a national level.
- A culture of digital empathy and responsible online behaviour: Conscious efforts must be made by each and every individual to create a compassionate digital world wherein people irrespective of their gender feel safe. The social media platforms
must be used to connect with other individuals instead of misusing it commit crimes.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, positive results of our study have evaluated the existing legal remedies to
address the issue of cyber-suicide. It not only analyzed classified types of cyber-suicides
but also revealed the prevalent forms of cyber-suicide in different parts of India for
illustrative purposes. In the light of rising cases of cyber-suicide, it also exposes the need
to create a separate definition and criminalize cyber-suicide. It will serve as a powerful
deterrent against abetment of suicide.
From a regulatory perspective, it will enable the legislators to propose new amendments in IT Act, 2000. It will also aid the NGOs actively working against suicide to use these legal remedies to provide justice to the
victims/ families of victims of cyber-suicide.Moreover, this research paper appreciates
the clear cut duties laid down for intermediaries to report these cases which has helped in
prevention of several suicides by cyber police by usage of content analysis method of real
time popular cases reported by media.
To tackle the mental health issues of the victim, periodical sessions by mental health experts is also recommended. At the same time, it also showcases the collective responsibility of members of society to create a culture of digital empathy and responsible online behaviour. In the long run, this paper will play a significant role in shaping the future of cyber-jurisprudence in India.
Limitations and future scope:
Undoubtedly, this research paper is a significant contribution in cyber jurisprudence.
However, it suffers from two limitations: I) The results of this paper cannot be
generalized due to small sample size. II) The usage of secondary data in the content
analysis method does not ensure a bias free content.
Further research may be conducted by professionals from the field of psychology to
discover new methods of treatment of victims of cyber suicide and professionals from the
field of computer science can undertake a study to strengthen the suicide detection
mechanism using machine learning and artificial intelligence mechanism.
