19-year-old Commits Suicide on Justin.tv

[rossshow]

19-year-old Commits Suicide on Justin.tv (http://newteevee.com/2008/11/20/19-year-old-commits-suicide-on-justintv/) — In a striking display of the power of live video, Abraham K. Biggs committed suicide on Wednesday while broadcasting himself on video site Justin.tv.

[bluekazoo]

I was just reading about that ...

So sad ... there were people watching, egging him on ... and laughing at him ...

I'm so troubled by the way the internet is used sometimes, and by the way that people behave, hiding behind the anonymity that the 'net affords them. It almost makes me miss the pre-www days.

I know most of us will never meet in person; heck, most of us will probably never even exchange emails or talk to each other on the phone ... but I don't think I'll ever understand how that lack of a 'real life' connection equates to not giving a damn about another human being in pain, or how it somehow gives people a free pass to act like assholes.

It's troubling enough that the kid wanted/needed an audience for that final act. But the behavior of the audience bothers me even more.

I wonder if he was hoping that somehow someone would reach out and try and talk him out of it, that someone would be his friend, even just for a little while.

[Kandi]

What's just as disturbing is we've seen people in this circle of boards who have encouraged suicide. I want nothing to do with someone who would encourage someone to suicide. It's shameful.

[kim]

- that's sad...

:(

[Aadani]

Copy of the thread was posted on some other boards.

http://www.mypicx.com/uploadimg/372349055_11202008_1.jpg

Pretty graphic.

Does have one clue as to why folks were so nasty. Apparently this guy had done something similar to this before as a gag. Hardly anyone believed him this time.

[krisinluck]

Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel's statement:As for the broadcaster incident last night, we don’t comment on individual videos, however, our policy prohibits inappropriate content on Justin.tv. We rely on the community to flag videos that they feel are objectionable. Once a video is flagged, it is reviewed and quickly removed from the system if it violates our Terms of Use...We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of thebroadcaster and his family during this timeIt's all about "cover our asses".

[bluekazoo]

From Eflux Media (http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Family_of_Web_Suicide_Teen_Reacts_To_Viewers_ Cruelty_29680.html)

The entire world was in shock at the news that a 19-year-old boy took his own life in front of a live webcam, but no one could have been more shocked than the teen’s family. As Abraham Biggs took an overdose of drugs to commit suicide, an audience watched and encouraged him to do it.

That sounds like a scenario from a really bad movie, but unfortunately, it was very real. The young man’s sister told reporters that she was shocked by the fact that so many people watched for hours, and did not even make a gesture to help her brother: “They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours.”

Abraham’s father told reporters that both viewers, and website administrators, are to blame for the incident. Abraham Biggs suffered from bipolar disorder, and died after taking an overdose of pills prescribed for his condition.

“I think they are all equally wrong,” Mr. Biggs said. “It’s a person’s life that we’re talking about. And as a human being, you don’t watch someone in trouble and sit back and just watch,” he added, calling for some kind of regulation to put an end to such incidents.

The 19-year-old teen had threatened to commit suicide before, and even wrote than on a forum, but apparently no one took him seriously. Some witnesses recall that during the live video streaming, Abraham took some pills and apparently went to sleep, which made a lot of viewers believe it was a hoax.

Unfortunately, it was not, and after finally being contacted by some users, police arrived at the scene to find Abraham Biggs already dead.

Such incidents have happened before, but the most troubling aspect of all this is that viewers not only fail to take action, but some of them are actually capable of sitting and watching for hours how a struggling young man threatens to kill himself and takes a pill overdose, and do nothing about it. Even more shocking is the fact that some viewers actually encouraged him to do it.


I don't know how large the websites in question are, or if they're even moderated/watched 24/7, so I don't know if the website administrators can really be held accountable - the father is obviously grief-stricken and looking for someone/anyone to blame - but the audience ... the audience is certainly at least partially at fault here ... having read Aadani's link, seeing the comments (which are so typical of a particular level of chatboard participant) just makes my blood run cold.

I wonder if the price for instant communication and access to virtually everything is ultimately our humanity.