suicide on cam

This page considers responses to suicides that occur online, in particular those that are captured by a web cam.

It covers -

• introduction
• incidents
• perspectives

     introduction

Historical accounts demonstrate that some people have killed themselves with an indifference to observation by bystanders or posthumous discovery. Others have actively sought an audience, whether through anger and narcissism or as the justification for a 'propaganda of the deed'.

Not every one dies quietly or in a private place. Some choose to expire in highly public locations, through for example a leap at mid-day from a building onto a busy street (with or without attention from television and radio journalists) or by jumping in front of a train, particularly from a crowded subway platform. Practitioners of 'suicide by cop' (in which a hostage-taker or other offender induces an agent of the state to kill the person to save the lives of others) often seek the accompaniment of a media circus.

It is thus unsurprising that some people have chosen to die in front of webcams (dubbed 'deathcasting') or have used chatrooms, blogs and other online mechanisms to foreshadow their deaths. Some people have announced their deaths on homepages or by email, a counterpart of traditional use of the final postcard or letter (and the literary trope "by the time you read this I will be dead").

Responses to 'on cam' suicides range from the realism apparent in preceding paragraphs (a mixture of sadness at anyone's suicide and scepticism about notions of 'internet exceptionalism') to hyperbole that the net fosters suicidal behaviour and that webcams somehow encourage online suicides more than other media.

That hyperbole, particularly in the mass media on slow news days, features claims that participants in online fora - in contrast to those offline - callously encourage would-be suicides to go through with the act and for example taunt them for cowardice if the individual shows signs of drawing back from the brink.

That indifference to another's suffering and incitement to self-harm - particularly in environments where the taunters enjoy some anonymity - is not confined to the net. Sociologists and police personnel recurrently report incidents in which crowds of gawkers have vociferously encouraged people to jump off buildings and even, on occasion, thrown rocks and bottles and would-be suicides who showed signs of climbing down from a bridge or building.

People without a need for a headline or for legitimation of calls to regulate video and other online content have noted that there has not been a rash of 'on cam' suicides (certainly fewer than the suicides captured by US television news cameras, including those in tv studios). Others have noted that collective expressions of outrage about "a dangerous new phenomenon" may simply encourage webcam suicides, given the importance of emulation in motivating some people. One reader of this page commented that over 32,000 people succeeded in killing themselves in the US during 2005, 10,070 in France, 4,047 in the UK, 46,000 in Russia and 2,155 in Australia.

     incidents

As of 2008 only a handful of incidents has attracted public attention. One was the death of US teenager Abraham Biggs (aka CandyJunkie), visible to viewers on Justin.tv.

Briggs had discussed his plan to commit suicide in a forum on bodybuilding.com, posting a link to Justin.tv and then taking an overdose. Some viewer attempted to talk him out of it; others urged ingestion of more drugs. One viewer on bodybuilding.com notified a site moderator of Biggs' intentions, with consequent arrival of police at Biggs' home featuring on the webcam.

Biggs' father subsequently condemned both viewers and the site's operators, calling for tougher regulation of the net. Jon Shaw of the University of Miami School of Medicine commented that "Access to a blog and a webcam probably contributed to the suicide".

Seven months earlier a dental student at Pariyaram Medical College in Kannur, India, reportedly hanged himself in front of his webcam so that he could be watched by his estranged girlfriend. A postgraduate student at the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow had taken a similar exit in 2004. Lee Morgan of the UK charmingly filmed himself falling to his death from the Humber Bridge to his death after a 2005 New Year's Eve row with his girlfriend, who received the images from his mobile phone on the way down.

UK Kevin Whitrick of the UK went online in an 'insult' chatroom (where participants "have a go at each other") in 2007, announced that he was going to kill himself and two hours later climbed onto a chair, smashed through a ceiling and then hanged himself with a piece of rope while the gawkers enjoyed the view on the cam.

     perspectives

One perspective on deathcasting is provided by suicides on traditional electronic media.

Former Argentinian police commander Mario Ferreyra, wanted for human rights abuses, pulled a gun from his boot and shot himself in the head on camera in 2008 after being interviewed by the tv crew. The Crónica TV network duly broadcast both the interview and his demise.

In 1987 Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer called a press conference after being convicted of bribery. Rather than announcing his resignation, Dwyer claimed that he was innocent, put a .375 Magnum in his mouth and pulled the trigger - recorded by television and newspaper photographers.

Ten years earlier US television newsreader Christine Chubbuck told her audience "in keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first — attempted suicide" and then shot herself.

A more sobering perspective is provided by the market for 'reality television', in particular televised car chases or other police pursuits in which there is an expectation that something bad is going to happen to the alleged offender.

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