[jedberg]

> 1992, the worst year of all, there was an almost unimaginable 2,641 heists, one every 45 minutes of each banking day.

Point Break came out in 1991. I wonder if that inspired some people.

For those that don't know, the plot is that a bunch of LA surfers knock off banks so they can spend the rest of their time surfing, and get away with it for a long time.

[freeflight]

It's interesting how the Werther-effect has been a topic for speculation, and even governmental action, for literally centuries, yet we don't seem to be any closer to acknowledging it, if it's actually a thing, or coming to any solid conclusions as what to do about if it actually is a thing.

It's also kind of weird how in the English-language sphere it's apparently only known/relevant for "copycat suicide" [0], when the implications for such a dynamic being true would be far more wide-reaching.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide

[DanBC]

You could look to the UK for examples of action being taken specifically around suicide. Broadcasters have self-imposed guidelines that they follow. The regulators are aware of these guidelines and the need for them.

Journalist unions have created a set of guidelines that attempt to balance freedom to report with the need to protect the public. (For something more specific: when you report someone has died in a public place do not give detail information about where they died. If they jumped off a particular bridge do not name the bridge. (We have a little bit of research from survivors about how they pick locations and some of them say they're influenced by news reporting)).

On your wider point, all our broadcasters are aware of "imitative acts" and so they're very careful when showing children doing violent or dangerous things. Our advertising regulator will also ban some ads that show these things. There was an example from some time ago of a soft drink called "Tango". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Man_(advertisement)

> Nonetheless, Orange Man soon sparked large controversy in the media and in public after it was discovered children had copied the events of the advertisement in playgrounds and injured themselves; Rupert Howell, a Tango advertisement executive, stated in 2000 that Orange Man "sparked a playground craze" where "people used to go round sort of slapping each other and saying 'You've Been Tango'd', and it was all very entertaining and great fun. There were no problems until we got a phone call once from a surgeon who said 'look, I'm not the complaining type but I thought you'd like to know that I did an operation on a child this morning with a damaged ear drum, and I was wheeling him in to the operating table, and said to him 'what happened to you then?' and replied 'I got Tango'd.'"[6] As a result, Howell pulled the advertisement from television that afternoon,[6] although other reports erroneously state that the advertisement was banned

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhOeG-uTJxw

[freeflight]

> You could look to the UK for examples of action being taken specifically around suicide.

But taking actions alone is not really a good indicator for how effective these actions actually are, particularly on such complex socioeconomic topics like suicide where most likely a whole slew of factors play a role.

So while one could look at the UK, what's missing there is something to compare it to, as just comparing to other countries alone doesn't really say much about how much these actions actually factor in the differences.

> On your wider point, all our broadcasters are aware of "imitative acts" and so they're very careful when showing children doing violent or dangerous things.

Is that also why a Star Trek episode, that mentioned Irish unification as an example of "terrorism working", had that scene cut from being broadcast on UK TV? [0]

Those are the kind of consequences where the waters suddenly become very murky: Most people would probably agree with protecting vulnerable populations from something like suicide. But what if that logic is extended to trying to protect even not so vulnerable populations from the "wrong ideas"?

[0] https://www.irishpost.com/news/star-trek-the-next-generation...