By Zaid Shuhaibar
In researching for the final project, I came across an article entitled Police investigate ‘live suicide on internet that really grasped my attention. According to the article, a teenager from the city of Pembroke Pines broadcasted his suicide through online message boards and a website, Justin.tv, that allows surfers to transmit their own TV channel. Through a message board of a bodybuilding website that he frequently used, the teenager wrote about his intentions only to get a mix of responses. Some of the responses were sympathetic, however others encouraged the suicide. Finally, the teenager broadcasted what appeared to be an overdose over the Internet. Apparently, about 185 people watched the suicide, and viewers only called for help once they saw the teenager was unconscious.
This article may relate to any individuals who may be researching psychological affects of the Internet. Obviously, this presents a great argument towards the fact that the Internet greatly contributes to drug abuse and suicides. Also, I believe this incident not only affects the teenager that committed suicide, but also the viewers of the broadcast and the people who encouraged the suicide through message boards. It is hard to argue that the viewers are not affected psychologically by what they saw. The teenager’s “live suicide” raises many questions, some that we have already discussed. For one, should people be more aware of how serious talk of suicide online could be? Should people that see comments on message boards about drug abuse and suicide attempt to find help for that person? Should websites and organizations monitor their message boards more closely to help prevent people from blogging about such activities? Finally, where does the government come into play with suicides on the Internet? If suicides continue to be broadcasted, how can the government interfere with the Internet to protect viewers from seeing such degrading footage?
