Suicide pacts arranged on the internet could be on the rise, warns a new report.
Specialised chatrooms and websites are enabling more people to meet up and arrange their deaths.
The cases, dubbed cybersuicides, are relatively rare but a consultant psychiatrist said this could change.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, Sundararajan Rajagopal said on average one suicide pact was made each day in England and Wales.
Although the number of pacts has dropped by 27% in 36 years, there are fears the internet could be creating a new line of them.
In October, the deaths of nine people in Japan were linked to suicides arranged using special websites.
And two girls in south Wales arranged a suicide pact after becoming friends via an internet chatroom.
Rebecca Ling, 14, survived the overdose attempt while her best friend Laura Rhodes, 13, died earlier this year.
Dr Rajagopal, who works at London's St Thomas's hospital, said: "An increasing number of websites graphically describe suicide methods, including details of doses of medication that would be fatal in overdose."
He added: "The recent suicide pacts in Japan might just be isolated events in a country that has even previously been shown to have the highest rate of suicide pacts.
"Alternatively, they might herald a new disturbing trend in suicide pacts, with more such incidents, involving strangers meeting over the internet, becoming increasingly common."
Specialised chatrooms and websites are enabling more people to meet up and arrange their deaths.
The cases, dubbed cybersuicides, are relatively rare but a consultant psychiatrist said this could change.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, Sundararajan Rajagopal said on average one suicide pact was made each day in England and Wales.
Although the number of pacts has dropped by 27% in 36 years, there are fears the internet could be creating a new line of them.
In October, the deaths of nine people in Japan were linked to suicides arranged using special websites.
And two girls in south Wales arranged a suicide pact after becoming friends via an internet chatroom.
Rebecca Ling, 14, survived the overdose attempt while her best friend Laura Rhodes, 13, died earlier this year.
Dr Rajagopal, who works at London's St Thomas's hospital, said: "An increasing number of websites graphically describe suicide methods, including details of doses of medication that would be fatal in overdose."
He added: "The recent suicide pacts in Japan might just be isolated events in a country that has even previously been shown to have the highest rate of suicide pacts.
"Alternatively, they might herald a new disturbing trend in suicide pacts, with more such incidents, involving strangers meeting over the internet, becoming increasingly common."
