"This forum gets pleasure and financial gain from killing British children" - another article about SaSu...

[Sakura.]

"Suicide forum linked to 130 deaths still accessible in UK despite ban


The media regulator claimed last month it could take no further action against the site, which has 170,000 posts encouraging suicide, because it supposedly blocked UK access.

But an investigation by Metro and the Ripple Suicide Prevention Charity has found the forum can be accessed within seconds using a virtual private network (VPN).

Ripple also warned there is at least one so-called 'mirror site' on the dark web accessible in the UK which contains the same horrific content.

Family members of loved ones who died after accessing the site have reacted in horror to these revelations.


David Parfett, whose son Tom died from a poison tablet promoted on the forum, told Metro: 'It is horrendous that we continue to allow this site into our homes.

'The forum gets pleasure and financial gain from killing British children.


'Ofcom has not learnt their lessons. They are afraid to use the tools given to them.'

The pro-suicide forum – which Metro is not naming – has been linked to more than 130 UK deaths and has been subjected to a years-long campaign to be shut down.

In July, Ofcom said it had exhausted all its legal powers to clamp down on the site under the Online Safety Act because the forum had introduced a geoblocker to stop British users accessing it.


This meant they had no legal grounds to ask a court to require internet service providers to stop UK users reaching the site.

However, the investigation has found that it is worryingly easy to access the harmful content.

It took just seconds for Metro to use a VPN to reach the page.


There are over 170,000 posts encouraging suicide and more than 2,000,000 replies


Ripple Suicide Prevention Charity also said they have uncovered at least one mirror site retaining the same information as the main site that is active on the dark web.

The dark web can be accessed without a VPN, although users typically do use one to reach it.

In November, the Samaritans identified a mirror site, which prompted Ofcom to reopen its investigation and fine the forum £950,000. This has not been paid despite a June 12 deadline.

Ofcom says it can pursue debt recovery where possible, but Metro and Ripple uncovered that the suicide forum appears to be preparing to bypass Ofcom's financial powers by fundraising via cryptocurrency.

The site tells vulnerable users they are facing 'increased regulatory pressure' – directly mentioning Ofcom – which has led to 'higher operational costs'.

The attempt to encourage users to donate via cryptocurrency appears to be an attempt to swerve the Online Safety Act, which can order a payment process to withdraw services from non-compliant platforms.

David said: 'These people are more agile and more determined than our very poor regulator.

'It is unforgivable we are allowing this to happen.'

Tom's dad described him as a 'lovely kid to be around'

David says Ofcom should have continued pursuing the forum


His son, Tom, was 22 when he was found dead in a hotel in Surrey in October 2021.

Tom was able to purchase poison that was promoted on the site.

Commentators on the site cheered him on as he documented how he felt after taking the substance.

David, who set up the Thomas William Parfett Foundation to campaign for online safety, said: 'It is unbelievably sick. We are talking about young people's lives.'

Ofcom says they have no legal grounds to further block access to the site because they 'cannot regulate worldwide use of platforms'.

The media regulator added they therefore had no legal grounds to pursue 'business disruption measures' to force internet service providers to block the site.

David said that Ofcom had 'got themselves into a twist' and followed 'unsatisfactory legal advice'.

He claimed: 'Ofcom seem afraid of their own shadow.

'If they had applied [for a business disruption order], they would have been given reasons for rejection, which they could have learnt from.'


Ofcom says the geoblocker means the site is no longer accessible for the 'vast majority of UK users', but Ripple says the tech is 'not 100% reliable'.

That is because databases can sometimes get it wrong and classify a UK-based IP address as belonging to another country.

David Savage, CTO of Ripple Suicide Prevention, said: 'We have found that there are multiple routes to access the site despite attempts to implement a geoblock for UK users.

'Unfortunately, Ofcom has accepted that users being able to access the site via a VPN, availability of mirror sites and an imperfect geoblocker are all insufficient grounds to trigger a service or access restriction order.

'It is clear that Ofcom needs to strengthen their approach to sites that have an active workaround.'

Savage said that Ofcom's 'jurisdiction must be extended' so it can tackle loopholes, such as VPNs, to take down content that is accessible through alternative means.

He added: 'The internet is a global network that often transcends borders, and relying on platforms to regulate themselves is a solution that will cost lives.'

Calls for Ofcom's powers to be bolstered have been joined by families of loved ones who died on the forum, as well as by campaigners.

Mia-Helena Knight Nikolin Caisley's brother Vlad was 17 years old when he took his own life in 2024.

His family believes he was encouraged by users of the online group.


Mia-Helena, 28, told Metro: 'Ofcom has reached the limits of its legal powers, but there should not be a full stop at the end of that.

'Technology is evolving constantly and prevention strategies need to evolve as well.

'Are we going to allow the number of deaths to keep on growing because we can't do more?'

Andy Burrows, Chief Executive of online safety charity the Molly Rose Foundation, said: 'It took Ofcom 468 days since launching its investigation to decide not to seek to block a nihilistic pro-suicide forum responsible for at least 164 deaths, after having to be pushed every step of the way to continue investigating by bereaved families.

'Families and survivors have been left devastated by this incomprehensible decision that means more vulnerable people will continue to be groomed on the site and which will ultimately result in more lost lives.

'Andy Burnham's new government must compel Ofcom to step up to protect the scores of vulnerable young people who remain at risk, and that means working with civil society and bereaved families to urgently bolster the regulatory regime and ensure it has more victim-centred leadership.'"

Suicide forum linked to 130 deaths still accessible in UK despite ban

Ofcom claimed last month it could take no further action against the site, but an investigation found it was accessible within seconds.

metro.co.uk

 

[Dawnfang]

"Encouraging suicide" is such a disingenuous way of putting what really goes on here. What a bunch of bullshit.

 

[YourLocalEdgelord]

All they do is blah blah blah when they could be taking the time to hear us out or help us.

 

[korchoi]

Since we're slaves, I suppose we don't even have the right to a peaceful death. Censorship is tightening in our country, too. Instead of creating an environment where we can live with dignity, they pour all their efforts solely into preventing suicide.

 

[YourLocalEdgelord]

The forum gets pleasure and financial gain from killing British children.

Really? Where's my payment???

 

[dragonofenvy]

Calls for Ofcom's powers to be bolstered have been joined by families of loved ones who died on the forum, as well as by campaigners.

Let's go I love it when the State is given more control over my life. That's what we need! The government will fix their problems, the problem in that people suffer so horribly they want to die that they go to a forum like this, but never the problems that lead them here in the first place. Gee I'm sure if the root cause was addressed then people in wouldn't have a need to find this site, who'd have thought? Ooooooooooh no it's the normal people who aren't completely miserable who are being inconvenienced at the thought of the existence of this site. Wouldn't give a shit about how I feel though, only they matter. This reminded me of the thread I made a while back about their narcissistic empathy.

The site tells vulnerable users they are facing 'increased regulatory pressure' – directly mentioning Ofcom – which has led to 'higher operational costs'.

The attempt to encourage users to donate via cryptocurrency appears to be an attempt to swerve the Online Safety Act, which can order a payment process to withdraw services from non-compliant platforms.

I won't lie though they have a point with this one. I have wondered how much the site makes.

There are over 170,000 posts encouraging suicide and more than 2,000,000 replies

I don't think I've ever seen a single post that isn't quickly snubbed out of someone telling someone to kill themselves. There's a distinction between being pro-choice and pro-suicide which they're intentionally refusing to see. Nobody wants their life brought to a point to where they view death as a viable option. If I made a post half a year from now saying that I've fully recovered and I have all the things I've wanted, and love life, and encourage others to keep going, it would be met with celebration. Nobody's gonna go in there and say "Fuck you @dragonofenvy kill yourself life is misery die!" I've seen those posts. The response is overwhelmingly positive.

 

[0x64]

I feel like property of the UK government.

 

[hurts2b]

People on this site want me to live so fucking badly. I've had so, so many people ask me to try my options before I CTB.

Most users aren't happy to see anyone go.

I'm certainly not excited when I read the goodbye threads.

There are a lot of articles about the site that I take issues with. But this one is one of the WORST.

The content on this site SHOULD disturb you. It SHOULD be disturbing that people are miserable enough to want to die.

 

[dirkw83]

I really don't believe users cheered Tom on, I've literally never seen that happen on this site. Users cheering someone on who's about to ctb? They will make up anything to get what they want. Maybe it's too hard for David to accept that Tom simply didn't want this life and that it had nothing to do with this forum.

 

[aunaltravita]

The purpose of those kind of articles is exactly what you're doing right now: react.

Reacting in any sort of way it's the main purpose, its copywriting is made that way. That journalist may not even really think what he/she wrote (idk for a fact tho).

Anyway people generally hate the thought about CTB and i don't think they will really ever understand it, especially loved ones that lost their child/spouse/relative have to process something heavy as death and being a voluntary CTB maybe is even worse than something sudden like an incident, you feel directly responsible and you think "why did he/she do it? There's now way" so they find an external culprit just to grieve...

Maybe their loved lost ones never felt heard at home, school or outside and even if they tried with everything they had they still couldn't change things and their parents, friends or relatives didn't even notice or actually brushed them off...you never know.

Anyway, I didn't look into it, but given the amount of traffic And resources this forum gives out for FREE I don't mind if the owners profit from it, without considering the risks involved with this kind of operation...I'd feel so miserable without knowing what to do, not knowing what I would face with some Methods and maybe I would've just hurt myself irreparably without this forum, I mean...

And people generally, don't want the truth, they want the easy pill:

"SaSu is a place, where people can actually turn their life around from being suicidal" not so easy and memorable

"They incite you to kys in this evil forum and they make money off it" ye this is memorable and easier to grasp

For those uninterested, about 80% of everyone that will read that article, will stop at that superificial concept, the other 20% will Actually visit SaSu and maybe 5% of it will read and understand what is it about

 

[Forveleth]

I say this every time. I love that they are putting so much time, effort, and tax payer money into blaming a website instead of fixing the reason why children in their country want to kill themselves. They would not have to worry about SaSu if life was not so bleak and hopeless for their citizens. But then that would require the Rich to treat the masses like actual humans and their staggeringly huge offshore accounts just can not handle that.

 

[aunaltravita]

I say this every time. I love that they are putting so much time, effort, and tax payer money into blaming a website instead of fixing the reason why children in their country want to kill themselves. They would not have to worry about SaSu if life was not so bleak and hopeless for their citizens. But then that would require the Rich to treat the masses like actual humans and their staggeringly huge offshore accounts just can not handle that.

Exactly. Digging deeper on the matter is just that living in a capitalistic society gives you the opportunity of really elevating and changing your own life and the life of your loved ones, but it implies that you'll have to be in the system (prison) they made.

They do not give you a choice, it's like "if you can climb the mountain good for you, otherwise, just suffer on the bottom till you die". Fixing the main issues is too hard, because of so many economical and political reasons and without some kind of reset it's gonna get worse and worse, no surprise that each politician always says that "we will help you blah blah blah" but then once in power won't actually do nothing: it's because they never wanted in the first place or because once in power they found themselves with their hands tied.

Also, don't forget corruption, even in tier 1 countries corruption is so bad man don't forget that drugs and all sorts of trafficking are common and "tolerated" by the governments. More easier to just say: yeah you're right, they're the problem.

Imagine telling your citizen that you can't change any shit for real and that we're just floating till we all eventually die cuz there is no other choice lol

This world so fucked up, but hey Spain won the world cup!

 

[itsgone2]

I say this every time. I love that they are putting so much time, effort, and tax payer money into blaming a website instead of fixing the reason why children in their country want to kill themselves. They would not have to worry about SaSu if life was not so bleak and hopeless for their citizens. But then that would require the Rich to treat the masses like actual humans and their staggeringly huge offshore accounts just can not handle that.

Agree. Everything is more expensive, good jobs are disappearing, but hey how dare you fall into despair.

 

[Aflame5926]

so any website that has a donate functionality is a criminel organisation???

if only they realise that they are being used to press forward cencorship.
maybe sasu would need to do some social media xDDD some good PR xD then they will see issues

 

[Le temps perdu]

I think instead of trying to shut down a safe space where people can talk about these things, they should try to understand why people are in so much pain that they end up considering suicide, and focus on the root causes instead of just focusing on suicide prevention while ignoring how the people going through it actually feel.

 

[fadedghost]

It's crazy because a ton of people read metro, and a ton of suicidal people are going to read Metro, and so many of them will go "There's a site for discussing suicide? That sounds interesting!" This is going to likely bring thousands of new people to the site.

I don't think we take pleasure at other people committing suicide here. Many of us relate to each other's situations.

 

[Aflame5926]

It's crazy because a ton of people read metro, and a ton of suicidal people are going to read Metro, and so many of them will go "There's a site for discussing suicide? That sounds interesting!" This is going to likely bring thousands of new people to the site.

I don't think we take pleasure at other people committing suicide here. Many of us relate to each other's situations.

maybe that the idea to be honest. they can't really prohibit but there is not a lot of people CTB.
but if there is a big enough spike that they can't aviod that anymore.

wonder if there is a logic here that they are actually make peolpe CTB more so they can blame it on this site

 

[fadedghost]

I think instead of trying to shut down a safe space where people can talk about these things, they should try to understand why people are in so much pain that they end up considering suicide, and focus on the root causes instead of just focusing on suicide prevention while ignoring how the people going through it actually feel.

I agree. I've seen tons of people who are on this forum due to extreme poverty who say "I don't want to die, but I really don't want to suffer as a homeless person." Well, the UK could guarantee housing for anyone mentally ill: that would probably eliminate many suicides right there. But they don't.

Homeless charity Shelter estimated in 2024 that the number of people in England who were entirely homeless or in temporary accommodation was 354,000. Perhaps the UK should address its own problems instead of scapegoating people online?

 

[pleroman]

If this is how the media represents this forum, makes you really wonder how misinformed we all must be about everything we have consumed via media outlets and not from direct personal experience. The world as we know it is shock fiction?

 

[yotaka]

This reminds me of something I read many years ago about workers in a certain country jumping from factory roofs because conditions were so terrible. Did the factory owners take steps to make the work environment less miserable? Did they shift their focus from maximizing productivity maximizing well-being? Lol of course not. They put up nets around the rooftops so people couldn't jump.

 

[YourLocalEdgelord]

Since we're slaves, I suppose we don't even have the right to a peaceful death. Censorship is tightening in our country, too. Instead of creating an environment where we can live with dignity, they pour all their efforts solely into preventing suicide.

Well said. We're their property. Can't have your valuables hit the self destruct button.

Reminds me of dolphins in captivity. Some of them commit suicide by simply holding their breath/drowning themselves. Whales do it too.

This reminds me of something I read many years ago about workers in a certain country jumping from factory roofs because conditions were so terrible. Did the factory owners take steps to make the work environment less miserable? Did they shift their focus from maximizing productivity maximizing well-being? Lol of course not. They put up nets around the rooftops so people couldn't jump.

Omg that pissed me off too.

Recently, a family in germany committed suicide by jumping off an observation tower. What did the authorities do? Demolish the whole thing! What the hell.

 

[Fadenself00_]

Really? Where's my payment???

No, no, you don't get it- the forum is a sentient being. It likes to feast on a lot of things, but don't you guys worry, I am currently forcing it on an diet

 

[starboy2k]

Hmmmm what did that pesky little bible say about the "forbidden fruit" again??? Right.

The more they waste their time with censoring this site, the more people will want to visit it. They never fucking learn.

 

[Fadenself00_]

Recently, a family in germany committed suicide by jumping off an observation tower. What did the authorities do? Demolish the whole thing! What the hell.

Damn, maybe I should ctb in Ofcom's office... maybe they demolish that as well xD

 

[FF777]

this is why the corporate media needs to die... hypocrites complaining about a site making money off of "evil" practices when they are sitting there fabricating hit-pieces like this to smear a place trying to do good and spin it in to making them seem evil, all for trying to make more profit for these corporate media scum..

they gloss over every single post on the whole site and claim every post is encouraging suicide.. Encouraging suicide is actually against the damn rules if they cared to report any thing truthfully..

the UK doesn't want any one to be able to have autonomy over their own life.. Did you get all 4 of your limbs ripped off?? too bad, you have to keep living until you die of old age at 99 years old..... and if people don't have access to these resources then they will try to use halfassed measures to try to CTB and might end up injuring them selves because they couldn't get information of how to do it right or maybe to not try that method at all..

what a huge sob story: the UK government doesn't have the power to wipe out SaSu completely..... it's not good enough that the site is banned in UK; oh no people can still use a VPN! those evil VPNs......... Oh we can block them from receiving donations to help keep the site up; oh no they are using cryptocurrency now, how horrible! that evil cryptocurrency! how dare people have the financial freedom to give their own money to an other person with out a license from us! what a horrible world! i can't wait until the whole world is a 100% totalitarian dictatorship and literally every thing has to have approval from the UK government.. only then will the world be a perfect utopia and every person in the world (including the ones forced to keep living until age 99 even though they are in a wheelchair permanently) can finally rejoice in happiness..

i hope SaSu gets A LOT of money.. i hope they are getting more money than they need to run the site.. they are one of the very few places where people can actually get informed about what their real options are, for both their future and the various methods they might be interested in.. it also has a lot of advice on what NOT to do.. And gee isn't it strange that the article never mentioned the Recovery section that aims at encouraging people to keep living and lift them up and empower them?.. how strange, i guess they just accidentally forgot to include that part.. And SaSu probably needs extra money any way to defend them selves from these maniacs that keep trying to shut the whole site down..

i like the one reason sob story they cherry-pick out like "oh look at this poor dad that lost his son that was using this site"..... yeah well i don't know what to tell you; people should have autonomy over their own life.. death is literally a natural part of life.. it can happen now or 70 years from now, but you don't have the right to start chaining some one down and telling them they have to keep living in hell world for the rest of their life.. they have their reasons and their reasons don't have to require an approval stamp from you nor any one else in the world.. let me chop off your legs and then tell you that you have to live until 100 years old, because your life belongs to me now..

 

[never mind me]

What about creating a society that people want to live in? Especially rich countries like the UK should rather spend more money to improve welfare and health care so people can live in dignitiy and get the help they need. That certainly would prevent more suicides than attacking SaSu. I have read countless posts where people listed financial worries or being homeless as one of their reasons why they want to ctb. And that isn't even counting the people who are stuck in dead end jobs they hate, because they know they would lose their homes, if they quit. Nor does it count the people who get disability benefits or some other kind of welfare money, but are stressed because they have trouble dealing with the bureaucracy required to get it.

 

[Golden]

I wonder have these people actually ever even visited this site. And if they have, how is it possible to not understand the difference between encouraging suicide and accepting suicide?

Another infuriating point that is made over and over again is that SaSu is somehow responsible for the deaths. How can anyone lack the logical thinking ability so badly to come to this conclusion? Do they think that perfectly normal and happy people accidentally ends up here and is pushed to kill themselves by this forum? Obviously not. Suicidal people come to this site looking to find a way to die as gracefully as possible. The way I'd like to put it is that thanks to SaSu, there are hundreds of people who haven't jumped in front of a train.

 

[Macedonian1987]

"Encouraging suicide" is such a disingenuous way of putting what really goes on here. What a bunch of bullshit.

This website hasn't encouraged me to commit suicide because I was suicidal long before this website even existed. I don't know why journalists enjoy twisting the truth about this website.