Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Internet Suicide Plays Out On Online Video

Abraham Biggs, a 19 year old from Florida, committed suicide on a video site called Justin.tv on Wednesday of last week. During the episode the people in the chat forum egged him on. The video continued to feed into the internet until police and medical personnel broke into Abraham Bigg's room and blocked the camera.

The broadcaster expects the users to report any unsuitable content, and has therefore washed their hands of any wrong doing.

Investigators also have determined that none of the viewers are at fault criminally. They may have been cracking jokes in the forum as the teen was dying from an overdose of pills, but they didn't kill the boy, they didn't tell him to do it, and they didn't believe it was real.

It is my opinion that the viewers had a duty to do whatever they could to stop it - but they didn't - and each one of them had a part in Abraham Bigg's death because all they did was watch, and do nothing.

Please note that I am not crying out for government regulation to make sure this never happens again. Government is not capable of preventing it from ever happening again. I am expecting individuals to take responsibility for their actions . . . or inaction, so that this happens rarely, and hopefully never again. Otherwise, we are opening ourselves up to said government intervention and control.

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