Teen Commits Suicide While Camera Rolls

I recently wrote an article for this site about the warning signs pointing to suicide in teens and how to prevent them from succeeding in taking their own lives. This afternoon when I logged on to check my email, the news headline "Teen Kills Self Live on Internet" caught my eye. I opened up the article and read on AOL News about 19-year-old Abraham Biggs who not only took his own life, but he did it while an audience of hundreds of thousands watched and commented. According to the article, Biggs had announced on a body building website that he hated himself and planned to commit suicide, providing members of the site with a link to another site, JustinTv where members can post streaming videos. There he turned on his webcam and broadcast his entire suicide from start to finish.

Though the idea of a 19-year-old committing suicide is certainly upsetting, I was more disturbed by the idea that Biggs would choose to air this event on the internet. A number of questions came to mind as I continued to read this article, not the least of which I'm sure was the question on the minds of most people hearing about this event: Why didn't anyone try to stop him? Our society has become increasingly immune to the things we see on the internet. Between Facebook, MySpace, and the myriad other sites where one can pour out their souls to people they've never even met, the normal rules of conduct no longer apply, but are people really so desensitized to the content of the virtual world we live in that they would not only ignore the importance of this incident, but not make an effort to prevent the death of a human being?

We see death every day. We see it on the news, in the movies, hear about it in music. But how often do we stop to consider the vast and far-reaching consequences of death? Death has become commonplace in our society, something that is no longer feared or respected. It is something that is the fodder for movie scripts and blog posts. Here is a 19-year-old boy who announced on a public forum that he planned to kill himself- not once, not twice, but multiple times. But because he kept returning to the forum, no one believed him. You can say anything in cyberspace. Everyone will listen, but in truth, it seems that few will actually care. Once the video started streaming and it was obvious that he planned to go through with it, no one was able to summon the humanity to call the web host and have the young man tracked down. In fact, those viewing the video sat around and joked about what he was doing. Some even encouraged him to end his life. People laughed while watching Biggs overdose on the pills he was prescribed in order to control his BiPolar Disorder. It took hours for someone to report this event, and by then it was too late. Shamefully, viewers continued to watch even as police were entering Biggs' father's room, only to discover the teen's lifeless body. The only comment they could supply was "OMFG"- "Oh My F'ing God" while others continued to laugh.

While the article notes that Biggs is not the first to commit suicide while the camera rolled, he is obviously the latest and will most likely hold the media spotlight for a few weeks. But now, one has to wonder how many more times this will have to happen before something is put in place to help teens who are at risk for this kind of public display. While we can't exactly limit the freedom of press and speech which the internet affords to the masses, we as a society need to come to the realization that suicide is real. The influence of the internet's virtual anonymity is also real and often heralds deadly results for teens who use it as their emotional outlet. Maybe it's time for people to regain consciousness and start doing the right thing.