Family Furious Over Teen's Online Suicide
Abraham Biggs, 19, Was Egged On by Fellow Bloggers, Cops Say
Internet and Death
This is just one of many instances over the past few years in which the Web and social networking sites have been blamed for teen suicide.
In October 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier hung herself after being told on her Myspace site that "the world would be better off without her" in an online conversation with what she thought was a boy she liked.
In what has been called the nation's first cyber bullying case, her 49-year-old neighbor, Lori Drew, is now on trial for one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization because she created the profile of the boy.
Abraham's death is also not the first suicide to be broadcast live. In 1974, 29-year-old, TV news anchor Christine Chubbuck committed suicide live on-air.
Bryan Pfaffenberg, an associate professor of science, technology and society at the University of Virginia says the Internet is not to blame, people are.
"It's real important to not necessarily assume that because people sometimes do strange things on the Internet, it doesn't necessarily mean that the Internet causes those strange things to be done," he said.
Dr. Charles Konia, a psychiatrist and author of The Emotional Plague says it's not easy to explain why some people seek public ways to kill themselves, such as the Internet or jumping off a building, while others chose to do so in private.
"It depends on the personality, the pre-disposing personality of the individual," he said.
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