Please add a reporting option for suicide and self-harm methods

[JessJesss]

While it’s ok for people to post about feelings relating to suicide or self-harm, posts about actual methods shouldn’t be allowed (as per advice from Samaritans, Mind etc).

I have quite often reported posts that mention specific methods of suicide and have had some really disappointing responses from MN before now - eg telling me you can’t edit posts, well fine then take it down and let the poster know they need to repost without that.

I wondered if you’d consider a reporting option for this. It would be nice to feel MN takes online safety seriously.

NB I really am not criticising or stigmatising people who suffer with these feelings, I have and do myself. But MN does a patchy job of dealing with talk of methods.

I wasn’t asking for a blanket ban on any mention of it, this is about details of methods.

Not easily because you’d need to include every type of method that people may talk about.

I’ve had MN come back and say they cant do anything about a post that mentioned a method.

So I started this thread as a way to reach MN, not realising they don’t look here at weekends. A bunch of people have jumped on me which has been quite stressful, a lot of people just don’t seem to understand the issue. I’m going to hide the thread as a result as I didn’t want a massive debate I just wanted to make a suggestion to MN, who I hope read it.

Generally I’m not convinced MN know clearly enough to take this issue seriously given that I’ve had moderators tell me they can’t do anything about a post that mentions a method before now. I really hope you’ll rethink this.

As said am hiding this now.

I can't see any value in a separate reporting option. If I ever need to report something it is in 'other' half the time and I have always had a very appropriate response.
I can't imagine that a separate text box would be less triggering. If it is triggering for you, scroll on by and let someone else report.

Re your most recent post, I think MN already have quite detailed and informed protocols about suicide threads and posts. The certainly know enough to 'take this issue seriously'

I’ve had a different experience at times. But thanks for your scathing post.

Hi @JessJesss. We do have a quite detailed moderation policy on suicide and self harm, which we established with the help of charities such as Mind some time ago.

Any reports like this are prioritised and yes, we would usually delete posts or threads where methods of suicide or detail on self-harm are mentioned. There may be exceptions though, as there always are. We'd really need to see the post in context to be able to give you more information on that, and it's probably best we don't do that here.

If you want to reply to the report you sent in on the post in question we'll happily take another look, or you can hit the report button above this post and chat to us there about it.

We'll have a think about the idea of a specific button for reporting posts such as this. It seems to work pretty well at the moment with posters choosing the 'other' option and then letting us know that they've spotted a poster who may be in need of help or support, or that a post may need to be taken down. But we're always happy to consider new options so we'll have a chat about that.

Isn't having a separate tick box going to be triggering for people when they report other things?