Cynics Unlimited

A long running internet rumor / nightmare scenario has finally materialized. The Scotsman is reporting that a distraught UK man took his own life –live on the internet- while egged on by sarcastic comments from a chat room.

A MAN has hanged himself live on the internet in what is thought to be Britain’s first online suicide.
The body of Kevin Whitrick was found after a chatroom user contacted police to report that the 42-year-old had “self-harmed” while online via a webcam.
…
Mr Whitrick is thought to have logged on with around 50 other users to a special “insult” chatroom where people “have a go at each other”. The PalTalk site offers around 3,000 chatrooms on different themes and around 50,000 people can be logged on at any one time.
However, some fellow surfers reportedly thought the death threat was a joke and egged him on, telling the man to make sure his webcam was switched on.
But minutes before the tragedy, Mr Whitrick turned on his webcam as he climbed on to a chair and began smashing through the ceiling of the room.
One anonymous chatroom user said: “He tied a rope around an uncovered ceiling joist and stood on the chair as he tied the rope around his neck.
“Some of us chatroom users, talking to Kevin over text chat, microphones and video tried to convince him to step down, but others egged him on telling him to get on with it…”

The word “inevitable” comes to mind – internet discussion boards have always been rife with two groups of people:

1. People who like to be jerks and use the internet to vent no one else really cares to hear
2. People who claim instability and threaten harm to themselves

Those from the latter group appear from time to time on nearly any kind of forum or discussion room, but 9 years of personal observation suggests that most end up being little more than slightly depressed attention whores. At first there was general sympathy or concern when these supposedly unstable individuals appeared but as time wore on, online communities became impervious to their infinite tales of woe. Occasionally stoicism gave way to contempt and board members started actually egging the “depressed” poster on to finish the job. To date I’ve never heard a confirmed report of someone actually harming themselves based on discussions in my favorite hangouts (which will remain off record for the time being).

The main problem with internet communication is that judging the emotional authenticity of the written word can be extremely difficult, while the grainy pictures of a webcam fare little better. As indicated in the article, some of the posters in this “insult” chat board attempted to contact authorities when it became clear that Kevin Whitrick was quite serious about killing himself. There is no transcript of his words, but even a semi-accomplished writer can come up with a weepy and desperate sounding persona to seek attention or just as a general wind-up. This is done so frequently that many experienced posters no longer take such talk seriously.

I say all of this because eventually some “genius” lawmaker is going to suggest that internet posters be criminally liable for encouraging self-destructive behaviour –even in jest- during online communication. Tempting as it may be to enact such a law, the truth is that it is nearly impossible to tell what is real and what is not on the internet. Moreover, it is impossible to determine what a genuinely depressed person will perceive as an incitement to suicide. Suppose that a law specifically prosecuting he incitement of suicide were enacted and that the following conversation took place–

Poster #1 – “Everything is going wrong. Sometimes I really don’t think I can make it through the day”
Poster #2 – “Yeah, life hardly seems worth it. Sometimes it seems much easier to go to sleep and never wake up”

This is a seemingly innocuous conversation, but if poster #1 committed suicide the following day would poster #2 be liable? As far as (s)he knew it could have just been general grousing or drunk talk. This is but one example of how the internet is a grey area when it comes to the law due to its inherent communicative limitations. Already similar battles concerning interpretation are being fought over hate crime and bullying on the internet.

The bottom line is that while the death of Kevin Whitrick is tragic, lawmakers and society should resist the temptation to enact some draconian law to prevent the kind of negative exchanges on internet chat boards that serve as entertainment and in some cases catharsis. The fact that someone reaching out to people in the internet world suggests a much larger failure among peers and trained professionals (from doctors to public social workers) in his/her real world – perhaps the lawmakers should start there.

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