Teenager live-streams his own suicide

The darker side of the internet
The darker side of the internet

A teenager in the US killed himself this week and broadcast the whole thing, via video sharing website Justin.tv.

Abraham K Biggs, a 19 year old from Florida, had warned viewers that he was going to do the deed, but those watching believed the whole thing to be some sort of sick stunt.

It was only after a few hours of watching the feed, where Biggs lay immobile on his bed after taking a number of pills, did someone raise the alarm. It estimated that around 1,500 people were tuned into the feed.

Policies in place

Speaking about the incident, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: "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."

Although the feed has been removed from the site, the footage has spread viral-like through the internet. The feed was apparently left on long enough to show a police officer come into Biggs' room to investigate.

A suicide note was posted on another forum before the incident, stating: "I am an a@#hole. I have let everyone down and I feel as though I will never change or never improve. I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her."

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.

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