It is a Sick World: Teen’s Suicide Streamed Live on Internet
When a Florida teen streamed his own suicide live on the Internet, many thought it was a hoax. They continued to believe so until cops found the body of 19-year-old Abraham Biggs Jr.
Others were watching young Abraham die from an overdosis online. They looked at him and did nothing.
Research indicates that Biggs did not only kill himself, and that others watched him do so, but that some viewers may even have encouraged him.
The suicide was streamed live on Justin.tv. The video and comments were taken off afterwards, but other sites have published a video of Bigg lying still, in a fetus position, on his bed when cops come in and switch off the camera.
It is as of yet unclear whether viewers truly actively participated in Biggs’ death or whether they were passive bystanders. We also do not know whether all those viewing thought it was a hoax; from comments in online forums one gets the distinct impression that most thought it was a joke. Some of these viewers contacted the police when they became increasingly worried that it may have been real after all.
Most is not all, of course. It is not difficult to image that at least some thought it was real, yet did nothing. Additionally, one wonders why it is that so many seemed to have been willing to take the risk.
This is a clear case of individual responsibility: Biggs killed himself, he is responsible for that act. But since so many people saw him die, they too had the responsibility to act. They should have informed Justin.tv that someone was either making a sick joke or that he was actually killing himself before a camera for all to see.
Meanwhile, one cannot help but wonder what is happening to the world and mankind. It is difficult to imagine that people would have watched Biggs die 50 or 100 years ago, as if suicide was cool.
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What I’ve read is that Briggs had threatened to kill himself before, and never actually did it. As someone who has been given the “I’m going to kill myself” BS line before, I can tell you it makes you very angry. You feel very much jerked around when someone exploits your worry for the life of another just to see if you’re paying attention. I don’t think I would have gone so far as “go ahead” the next time I heard a threat, but I do think I’d have been less inclined to believe it. Crying wolf and all that.
Of course this needs to be investigated in full. There are certainly people online sick enough to actually believe someone is dying and do nothing, but I don’t know that it can be assumed to be the case here. It could be that regulars didn’t believe it until it was too late and passers-by thought it must be a hoax. Since nothing moved in the frame there was discussion that he had actually left a still photo to fool people into thinking he was dead. This ended rather drastically when the image showed the door being kicked in and the police going through.
I think the crying wolf argument is horrible. Just because someone did not succeed in killing themselves does not mean they are not serious. Why would you wait until they die to take them seriously? It’s a little late then! I think the fact that someone has already tried to OD in the past makes it that much more serious. The idea that expressions of desire to commit suicide and failed attempts to do so are just “crying wolf” until they finally succeed in dying is appalling.
Anonymous, in my particular case, there never was the attempt, just the threat. I very worriedly called friends (I didn’t have the persons exact location) and was informed that these threats happened periodically. This was years ago, and as far as I’m aware (I’ve lost touch) the individual is still very much alive and the threats were never more than that.
Yes it’s horrible, but I assure you that once you’ve been scared a few times it becomes entirely “crying wolf” if for no other reason than that you don’t want to encourage the behavior by playing along. Occasionally someone follows through on one of those threats and I’m sure those who were given warning feel horrible for having ignored the upenteenth threat as it turned out to be real. But you can’t force yourself to believe something like this every time. Been to high school? If yours was like mine you received bomb threats. Did you ever see anyone rush out of the school? One of those threats could have been the real thing and kids could have died, but they can’t force themselves to be frightened of a threat they hear often that never turns out to be real.