Sister appalled by online gawkers who watched brother die and did nothing

The family of a Florida teen who killed himself in front of an online audience unleashed their anger Saturday at the Web site & cold-hearted gawkers who did nothing to help their beloved brother & son. “Joking about it, laughing about it, watching somebody breathe and then not breathe,” the victim’s sister, Rosalind Biggs, 27, said through tears. “It just would have taken one phone call.” (www.nydailynews.com)

Cyber suicide on Justin.tv

He lay on his bed in white boxer shorts & a grey T-shirt, his legs curled up to his chest, as police broke down his bedroom door & covered up the Web camera that had broadcast his suicide on the Internet. Abraham Biggs, a 19-year-old from Pembroke Pines, Fla., killed himself on Wednesday after announcing his intentions in an online bodybuilding forum & allegedly being encouraged to end his life by some of the approximately 180 people who watched him overdose via streaming video.
“I’ve had 7 roxies & 3 ultram and now I have lexapro left,” Mr. Biggs wrote in the Bodybuilding.com forum he started under the subject “Misc.” (www.theglobeandmail.com)

Online suicide is tragic, but don’t blame Internet

A teenager invites people to watch him commit suicide over the Internet. Hundreds log on & watch. Some of them urge him on, laughing at him, calling him “faggot” and “coward.” By the time Florida police were alerted to the Nov. 19 online tragedy of Abraham Biggs, the 19-year-old was dead.
The first reaction is one of horror & revulsion at those who urged a troubled individual to kill himself. The second is to blame the technology that allows a person to broadcast his suicide while others watch in real time. Biggs was not the first person to kill himself on the Internet. Britain was shocked in March 2007 when 42-year-old Kevin Whitrick hanged himself while Internet users watched.(www.canada.com)

Report: Teen commits suicide on Justin.tv

A 19-year-old man has committed suicide while broadcasting himself on Justin.tv, according to a report at NewTeeVee.
The teenager took an overdose of pills while on camera & was apparently encouraged to do so by commentators on Justin.tv & a bodybuilding site, according to the report.
Justin.tv enables users to broadcast video live to the Internet. NewTeeVee said it confirmed the man’s death with the Broward County medical examiner’s office, which is near Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. This will undoubtedly raise questions about the power of Web video & whether its voyeuristic nature can go too far. (news.cnet.com)