Teen Kills Self on Justin.tv

[meegbear]

Police in Pembroke Pines, Florida, are investigating the apparent suicide of a 19-year-old whose death was seen on a live Justin.tv feed, a Broward County dispatcher said.

According to published reports, the teen's death, broadcast Tuesday evening, was from an overdose. Video watchers called the authorities, who broke into his residence.

About 185 people were viewing the feed on the San Francisco-based live-streaming service. But the teen apparently announced his pending suicide on a bodybuilding chat forum, left a suicide note, and viewers were said to have egged him on.

Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said in an e-mail: "We regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time. We have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content, and our community monitors the site accordingly. This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our terms of service."

Public suicides are common. People jump off buildings and bridges.

Suicides now have veered to another public arena: the internet. A British man suffered the same fate two years ago after being goaded to hang himself while in a webcam chatroom. And the net is also a known area to organize suicide pacts.

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

[YOY]

1. Woah...

Sick sad world of detached human beings...I guess this is part of it too in a way.

[Seedersandleechers]

2. My heart goes out

to the boys family. :cry:

[WillParkinson]

3. Humans are sick...

Things like this just prove it.

[babylonsister]

4. Viewers 'egged him on'??

I have no idea what justin.tv is, but this is distressing. :(

[davidpdx]

6. They do a lot of streaming video

I use it to watch football in the US since the games aren't shown here in Korea.

It is a very sad thing that someone decided that life has so little to offer.

People get so desperate that they can't think pass the situation they are in.

[Lerkfish]

7. when you're faceless, a lot of unpleasant impulses come out

[babylonsister]

9. This I know, but what kind of viewers are watching this station?

I hope they have a shred of conscience and feel like shit for encouraging this.

[cboy4]

5. Terrible.

:(

[Gwendolyn]

8. It was someone who posted his suicide on bodybuilding.com

I saw all the threads yesterday, from his first post intending to do it, and all the asshats who were urging him on. He posted a suicide note and people laughed. Apparently he had done this before so no one took him seriously.

He was a 19-year-old with big issues, obviously...had been thrown out of his house, barely functioning at school, had a child and a girlfriend who had just broken up with him.

Very sad.

People watched him down the pills and continued to laugh, until 6 hours later, finally someone alerted a mod, got his details and called the cops. I believe it was someone from India who tried to call the cops, but even then, they were slow to respond, thinking it was a hoax.

The video of him lying motionless in bed, with the cops busting in is still out there. Bodybuilding.com was down all day yesterday, and they probably expunged the awful threads.

[ET Awful]

10. Sounds similar to the story a few years back about Brandon Vedas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Vedas

[Edweird]

11. Wow. That's where I live, and I haven't heard about that till now.

Sad.

[Uzybone]

12. Sad story

we will see more of it as those who want attention for thier suicides decide to chose the net.

[Deja Q]

13. Who's the twerp saying "LOL"? Sounds like a real dickhead, judging by his pseudonym...