19 year old teen commits suicide on WebTV

A 19 year old young man was found dead by police as a result of an overdose of opiates and benzodiazepine, which are prescribed for depression and insomnia. Apparently, was feeling depressed and used his blog to express his feelings over a girl and made statements of wanting to commit suicide. Approximately 185 people were able to view his blog and the actual pending of his suicide overdose on a San Francisco based live streaming service which was posted on a chat forum. He did post a suicide note, which sparked a rash of comments made by people egging him on and not taking it seriously. Finally, someone saw that the teen was not moving after a while and was able to locate him and called the police. When the police arrived and tried to revive him, they too were caught on the webcam and the "audience" viewing this made very rude and disturbing comments anywhere from "OMG" to "LOL". This unfortunately, is not the first suicide to air on web TV, but hopefully something can be done to either stop or at least take a person serious when they post a blog stating that they are thinking of comitting suicide. On this site you can see from the still picture of the police officer in the room with the teen and some of the comments that were left. This is so disturbing to me. I cannot believe the response this video got in such a negative manner. To think that people thought this was funny and encouraged him to do it, is so wrong. It makes you think, what is this world really coming to that people are that desparate to see such a thing on a webcam via the internet and think nothing of the life of someone to try to save.


http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/teen-kills-self.html

That is a really sad and sort of disturbing story. I can’t believe that someone would just let that boy do that. The people in the chat room could even be witnesses to the death and they are able to get away with just idly watching someone die. The comments on the page are ridiculous those people should be ashamed of themselves, not only for their lack of humanity, but also for their lack of grammar. It’s strange that in a time when it is so easy to connect with other people, that no one would be willing to listen to a cry for help like this.

wow... i cant beleive someone would do that. It's just insane how much technology takes over todays soceity. To commit suicide is one thing. But to do knowingly over the internet is another. Especially when it sounds like he made it clear and wanted it to be well known that he was trying to kill himself to everybody that was reading his blog. I dont know if that was supposed to be a final call for help or what, but it's even worse that so many people were egging him on, and was making it all a joke. Some people can just be so horrible and mean.. that's rediculous. I do think it's a little pathetic though that he killed himself over live video chat..i mean seriously. At least send your little suicide note to everybody, then turn off the camera and do what you needed to do...

I am only 26 and have had two friends and a family member commit suicide. Now whenever I hear about something like this I wonder, why didn’t anyone see this coming? The fact is that I never seen any of those ones I know talk about it. I never thought they would do it. I knew they were down on life and some of them were in a jam but, never thought they would resort to this, especially since all three of them had children. It brought me to the conclusion that the ones who really want to kill themselves don’t talk about it they just do it, and the ones who let people know are just craving attention. However, people actually watched this. I think that maybe this kid only wanted attention, but now he won’t get it. Someone should have call 911. I think it is sick and twisted for someone to watch someone else kill themselves. The authorities should serve those people some form of punishment. Better yet they should let the teen’s family and loved ones tell them all how they feel now that their loved one is dead.

In the past 18, almost 19, years of my life I have had 3 friends commit suicide all within one year of each other. After those deaths whenever I hear someone say something about committing suicide or wanting to die I do everything in my power to stop it from happening. The worst part about this story is that no one believed he would do it and so they joked with him about it. That is just the beginning of how horrible the story is. When police walk into a room to deal with a situation you should never laugh. It’s a serious matter that could have been prevented had people not been so caught up in their own lives. It is absolutely ridiculous. When something this serious is basically put into your hands and you are sitting right in front of it, able to make it better, then you should take that opportunity even if you feel like the person is just joking around.

I think that it is horrible that someone was able to commit suicide online and only have someone call for help after they stopped moving. If someone watching had the ability to locate the young man that killed himself after the fact, then he could have done so just as easily before he killed himself. The kid was basically asking for someone to care enough to stop him or else he would not have done this with people watching. I hope that the world is not coming to a point where they only care about themselves and their own life. The question that I have is, shouldn’t the people that watched and egged him on be in some kind of legal trouble for not saying anything to get him help or for encouraging such a horrific event. They are basically assisting in the suicide, which I know is illegal. Hopefully the next time this happens someone will do the right thing to save a life even if they do not know the person or it is not their own life. I am sure that this teenager wanted was to know that someone cared enough to save him or to tell him that he shouldn’t do what he is planning. I hope this is not going to be a new form of entertainment for my generation, I for one would not want to watch anyone take a life even if it is their own. Every life should be important.

This is something that is happening more and more now. People are using the internet to kill themselves and are willing to let other people watch them do these acts. This happened a while back when people had access to a boy that had set to kill himself at a certain time and all the people watching were telling him he should do it, basically giving him more reasons to do it. This is just disgusting to me, I can't believe that people would want to witness someone else kill themselves. And for no one to do nething to stop them, just blows my mind. What has this world come to??? Any little threat should be stopped in any way possible, because no matter what someone is going through, it isn't worth taking your life over.

Unfortunately, when people make a big announcement about suicide, they are generally looking for attention. The kind of attention that they receive on the web is not likely to be helpful, because many people won't take it seriously, or are just sick enough to hope that they will get to watch.

Perhaps the government could set up a 911 type of thing where someone who is in on a live chat could let the authorities know that so-and-so has made these threats. Then, peoplep with skills far greater than mine, could find them and stop them or at least get them the care they need.

Wow, I really like the Flaming Lips a lot too but I did not have a clue that they had a song chosen to be the state song of Oklahoma! I did not even know there was a street named after them either! I guess I need to do more research on the bands I like…but I saw the film you were talking about, Christmas on Mars. I watched it at the music festival in Chicago, Lollapalooza. It was a really crazy experience. Maybe you should go to it sometime. You probably have never heard of it before but it is very fun! Anyways, you picked a very interesting article. Good job.