A spokesman for the charity said: “We have seen social media platforms monetising misery and it is now YouTube and Google that have been discovered doing it, although potentially inadvertently.
“The unpoliced algorithms that drive these platforms can produce dreadful effects, which are online harms and can lead people further down the road to suicide.
“This is why the age of self regulation must come to an end and proper considered government regulation needs to be introduced urgently to prevent more tragic deaths.”
Meanwhile, Alice Hendy, who lost her brother Josh aged 21 to suicide in November, called on Google to provide more support and stronger interventions for vulnerable people carrying out such searches.
Currently, Google displays the Samaritans helpline number at the top of searches related to suicide.
However, Ms Hendy, from Fareham near Portsmouth, said the search engine needed to more “forcefully steer” people towards help services following the death of her brother.
Ms Hendy, a 29-year-old cyber security expert, developed a programme called Ripple. The software…