One of the first Internet suicides in Israel occurred in 1997, when Eran Aderet, a 19-year-old soldier, died after expressing a desire to kill himself online, and received detailed instructions on how to accomplish this with an M16 rifle in his possession.
[2] Following this case, in 1999, a new Israeli association, SAHAR, sought to prevent suicide by providing supportive conversations and referrals to relevant resources.
The first known Internet-related suicide pact occurred in February 2000, when one Norwegian man and one Austrian woman plunged 300 metres down the famous cliff Preikestolen, in Rogaland county, Norway.
[11][12][13] One notable example would be Hiroshi Maeue, who on March 28, 2007, was sentenced to death by hanging, alleged to have murdered three participants in a suicide pact.
[14] An article published in the British Medical Journal in December 2004, by Sundararajan Rajagopal, Consultant Psychiatrist from St. Thomas' Hospital in London, highlighted the emergence of the relatively new phenomenon of cybersuicide pacts, addressing it from a psychiatric perspective.
Alternatively, they might herald a new disturbing trend in suicide pacts, with more such incidents, involving strangers meeting over the Internet, becoming increasingly common.