New Blue Whale on TikTok? How to protect a child from suicide

Viktoriia Hubareva

In 1774, a wave of suicide swept among young people in Germany. 100 years later, this phenomenon was investigated by the American sociologist David Phillips. He noticed the connection between deaths and the publication of Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, where the protagonist commits suicide. It prompted him to study for the next 7 years how the number of suicide programs correlated with the number of suicides among potential viewers. Phillips discovered that within two months after each high-profile posting on suicide, on average 58 more people than usual committed suicide.

The phenomenon's name stuck: the Werther's effect or syndrome. Experiments were carried out, and then measures were taken to prevent new suicides provoked by the wide publicity of those that had already happened. For example, in the set of rules for journalists, there's a chapter in Germany, which specialists helped to develop. It is devoted to the specifics of covering suicide cases and sets some restrictions, such as disclosing all the details of what happened.