The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: Tucker on November 22, 2008, 06:16:12 PM
-
Kin outraged, distraught over teen's cyber suicide
By RASHA MADKOUR • Associated Press • November 22, 2008
MIAMI-- The family of a college student who killed himself live on the Internet say they're horrified his life ended before a virtual audience, and infuriated that viewers of the live webcam or operators of the Web site that hosted it didn't act sooner to save him.
Only after police arrived to find Abraham Biggs dead in his father's bed did the Web feed stop Wednesday — 12 hours after the 19-year-old Broward College student first declared on a Web site that he hated himself and planned to die.
"It didn't have to be," said the victim's sister, Rosalind Biggs. "They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours."
Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, authorities said. He posted a link from there to Justin.tv, a site that allows users to broadcast live videos from their webcams.
A computer user who claimed to have watched said that after swallowing some pills, Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
http://www.freep.com/article/20081122/NEWS07/81122017
I think that I've lived too long. Would someone explain apathy to me.
-
I feel that if you want to go who am I to get in your way?
-
I feel that if you want to go who am I to get in your way?
There's a slight difference between "getting in the way" and egging the kid on.
-
There's a slight difference between "getting in the way" and egging the kid on.
It's not a spectator sport.
-
It's not a spectator sport.
You're right, it's not. Which makes this line all the more disturbing:
Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
-
That's pretty messed up.
-
You're right, it's not. Which makes this line all the more disturbing:
Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
That's what I don't understand. The apathy of people. How can they be so cold and insensitive?
-
That's what I don't understand. The apathy of people. How can they be so cold and insensitive?
Anonymity. I've found that when I lived in larger areas, people tended to act more callous/rude towards others because they (more or less correctly) assumed that any interaction between them and you was a one-time deal, and would not come back to haunt them at some future date. And the Internet, the largest and seemingly most anonymous community of all brings out some of the basest behaviors in people.
-
That's messed up. There is no anonymity on the Internet, it's a world of pseudonyms. A proxy server does not make one anonymous, it is meant to bypass firewalls.
-
Anyone ever see that movie Untraceable with Diane Lane?
-
That's what I don't understand. The apathy of people. How can they be so cold and insensitive?
Its possible they didn't believe it was really happening. There are a lot of attention seekers on the web too.
-
Its possible they didn't believe it was really happening. There are a lot of attention seekers on the web too.
That was my first thought when I found out about this suicide.
-
Anyone ever see that movie Untraceable with Diane Lane?
Nope. What was it about?
-
I would say tha tin a world with five Saw movies its a wonder that things are not far worse.
-
Nope. What was it about?
A killer would show live streaming video of his victims right before he would murder them. The more people who logged in to watch, the faster the victim was killed. People would egg on the killer and actually encourage it. The viewers would laugh about it, thinking it was a joke.
Good movie except I didn't care for the ending.
Very similar to this real-life story, except that this is a suicide.