Managing social media conversations about locations of concern

Social media provides an accessible space for people to connect, share what’s happening in their local communities and signpost to available support. It can offer invaluable help in moments of crisis, creating opportunities for people experiencing self-harm and suicidal feelings to find understanding and a sense of community.

However, social media can also expose users to distressing content and enable harmful conversations. This includes speculation about locations of concern, which can contribute to those places becoming associated with suicide.

This guide is aimed at organisations, services, and local community members who may be responsible for managing or responding to issues online relating to a location of concern. This might include social media managers within organisations and in statutory agencies, local online community admins and members, and leaders in campaigns for change.

You can access the Welsh version of this page here.

Research shows that associating suicides to a specific location can draw vulnerable people to these areas.

Safer communication will:

• Refer to a wider area or region, rather than a specific location
• Note that the area is a public space, as this can discourage people from going there
• Highlight the area as busy, including in pictures

Safer communication avoids:

• Naming a specific location within the context of suicide
• Referring to it as a famous suicide spot
• Presenting it as a quiet, isolated place
• Describing the location, giving directions or providing any identifying details, including in pictures and videos

If there's a need to raise awareness of a location, due to potential disruption associated with someone in crisis, avoid linking the location with suicide.

Safer communication will:

• Focus on disruptions affecting the community, including updates on diversions and expected time for disruption
• Use minimal information about why a space has been closed
• Signpost users in distress to support, depending on the situation – here is a list of sources of help.

Safer communication avoids:

• Communicating the nature of the incident
• Naming just the location of concern
• Engaging with harmful or speculative comments, which may prompt unhelpful discussions

Communication is safest when attention is directed towards prevention and support rather than the details of an event. Evidence shows that messages of hope and recovery have a protective effect on people.

Safer communication will:

• Encourage help-seeking and highlight available support
• Reduce stigma around suicidal thoughts
• Share messages of hope and recovery

Safer communication avoids:

• Speculation about why a suicide occurred
• Detailed discussion of what happened

Compassionate language helps create spaces where people feel safe to seek support and can set expectations for how others engage.

Safer communication uses language that is:

• Compassionate and inclusive
• Non-judgemental

Examples of safer wording include:

• “died by suicide”
• “ended their own life”
• “person at risk of suicide”
• “person in crisis”

Safer communication avoids language that can increase harm, such as:

• Sensational descriptions
• Naming a location as a well-known suicide spot
• “Committed suicide”, which can stigmatise or make suicide sound like a crime
• Expressions suggesting suicide is inevitable, painless or a solution to a problem
• Suggesting that someone in crisis is selfish or attention seeking

Signposting to support is one of the strongest protective elements in online communication. It's especially helpful to include signposting in the comments for other users to see.

Including support information:

• Normalises help-seeking
• Provides immediate options for support
• Makes posts safer for vulnerable readers

TIP: Organisations could keep a shared online drive with digital assets, such as designed images with messages from local and national mental health and suicide prevention services. Post these messages and campaigns alongside stories of hope and recovery from people who have experienced mental health problems and suicidal feelings. 

Social media managers and online community admins are responsible for monitoring and moderating comments, and should focus on harm reduction and deterring speculation, while increasing opportunities for support.

Approaches to moderation will be dependent on resources, such as time, tools and processes. Limiting comments when the discussion is likely to turn negative or speculative can be helpful, but it’s worth keeping this to a minimum.

It’s strongly advised to remove comments that name a method or location linked to suicide. The same applies to graphic and descriptive videos, images or details of these locations, including those of people in crisis, which should also be reported to the platform. Letting people know how and why comments are being moderated helps build community understanding and trust.

Depending on the situation, monitoring and moderation can include:

• Removing comments containing methods or locations of concern
• Holding comments for review before they are posted
• Limiting comments on high-profile cases
• Disabling new comments 24-48 hours after the post is published
• Closing comments during periods of limited moderation capacity, such as public holidays

Platforms offer moderation tools you can explore, such as these from Facebook (1 & 2), Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok and X.

TIP: For social media managers, updating your social media guidelines’ can be very helpful, so you can direct people to them when moderating. Samaritans’ social media guidelines are a useful example:

“We’ve hidden your reply as it goes against our community guidelines. Some people can find images or descriptions of self-harm and suicide distressing, so we hide comments like this to keep our page a safe space. We hope you understand. You can find out more on our social media guidelines page.”

Remember your role is to signpost users to support. Never provide advice or counselling.

Practice self-care after viewing graphic and harmful content by taking a break and doing something relaxing. Only view content when necessary and delete what is no longer needed. Reach out to support services for yourself when needed.

Talking about suicide safely online can be lifesaving. While it may seem a helpful option, closing comment sections completely can hinder safe community conversations and push people to other unmonitored and riskier online spaces, further away from sources of help.

To keep people talking safely:

• Limit speculation
• Report harmful content to platforms
• Encourage respectful discussion
• Highlight support information

Where possible, use moderation approaches in Principle 6 to reduce harm while maintaining supportive dialogue.

At times, you may need to respond to worrying online activity that puts people at significant risk. This might be:

• Information about methods and locations
• Online challenges or private groups directly encouraging people to harm themselves
• Multiple suicides that may have been linked to online activity

In this situation:

1. Report this activity directly to the platform and carefully consider which agencies or organisations should be involved to avoid drawing additional attention to the harmful material.

2. Escalate and get advice from your manager, a suicide prevention lead, a multi-agency group or other agencies, depending on the situation.

For more information, please refer to our guidance on responding to concerning activity and contact our Online Safety Advisory Service for further support.

3. When you see activity that suggests someone is in immediate danger, alert emergency services if you can provide information about the identity or location of the person. Again, report the content to the platform, so they can escalate the situation and send supportive resources to the individual. Follow your organisation’s safeguarding procedures.

4. Be mindful of comments from bystanders, as they may be traumatised and unaware of the risks of sharing details about a suicide online. Signpost them to Samaritans’ helpline and, if available, to trauma support. Their comments should be moderated depending on the content.

When responding to online issues relating to areas of concern it can help to work collaboratively with other key stakeholders in the local area (for example, local councils, police, public health leads)

Collaboration helps:

• Identify emerging risks
• Respond quickly
• Share helpful resources
• Promote consistent messaging
• Improve responses to concerning situations

Coordinated approaches allow different groups and organisations to contribute according to their roles and strengths.

TIP: The free suicide awareness training from Zero Suicide Alliance can help build your network's confidence in having conversations about suicide. Samaritans offers additional training to spot and support anyone struggling to cope.

Collaborative efforts can also include social media adverts in areas surrounding a location of concern, subtly signposting people to support, for example:

“Just a reminder that if you need to talk, you can call Samaritans free, day or night, on 116 123.”

Consider developing or sharing helpful mental wellbeing campaigns and messages, and stories of hope and recovery locally. Research has shown that positive stories about people overcoming a crisis and how they have recovered from this can encourage vulnerable people to seek help and reduce the number of lives lost to suicide.

If you’re developing local campaigns, these resources might also be useful to consider:

• The Suicide Prevention Communications Guide from our Media Advisory Service
• The ‘It’s not your story to tell’ campaign

Samaritans has a range of additional resources focused on suicide prevention on the rail network. For more, please visit our Rail Programme page.

Recent studies have explored the role of social media in both harm and support³, including evidence of the positive effects of equipping people to communicate safely about suicide online⁴. They also highlight the need for proactive public health strategies to strengthen education, monitoring, and moderation practices for safer social media use⁵.

Safe communication online can save lives. Setting the standards for safe online conversations helps create sensitive, supportive spaces for connection and community.

This can be a difficult issue to navigate alone, but we can do it together. Samaritans’ online safety advisory service and media advisory service are here for more specific advice. For media enquiries about suicide in public spaces, road or rail networks, please refer to the guidance from our Media team.

By following the 10 principles in this guide, we can help keep our online spaces safe and encourage help-seeking.

This guide was commissioned by NHS Wales Performance and Improvement.

References:

1. Niederkrotenthaler, T., Braun, M., Pirkis, J., Till, B., Stack, S., Sinyor, M., Tran, U. S., Voracek, M., Cheng, Q., Arendt, F., Scherr, S., Yip, P. S. F., & Spittal, M. J. (2020). Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, 368, m575.
2. Law, P. C. F., Spittal, M. J., Too, L. S., Pirkis, J., & Clapperton, A. J. (2025). Media reporting about sites frequently used for suicide.
3. Calvo, S., Carrasco, J. P., Conde-Pumpido, C., Esteve, J., & Aguilar, E. J. (2024). Does suicide contagion (Werther effect) take place in response to social media? A systematic review. Spanish Journal of Psychiatry and Mental Health.
4. La Sala, L., Pirkis, J., Cooper, C., Hill, N. T. M., Lamblin, M., Rajaram, G., Rice, S., Teh, Z., Thorn, P., Zahan, R., & Robinson, J. (2023). Acceptability and Potential Impact of the #chatsafe Suicide Postvention Response Among Young People Who Have Been Exposed to Suicide: Pilot Study. JMIR Human Factors, 10, e44535.
5. Bell, J., & Westoby, C. (2025). Public and mental health professionals’ perspectives on social media and suicide exposure. BMC Public Health, 25(1), 1380.