First, I’m sorry the young man is dead. Mental illness sucks, this was definitely a tragedy.
However, a big “wtf” to this comment by his father (bolding mine):
“There seems to be a lack of control as to what people put out on the Internet,” he said. “There’s a lot of garbage out there that should not be,”
Er, you means things like what your son “put out on the internet”? I mean, I know he’s still reeling from the news of his son’s death, but again, WTF? The father is now blaming everyone except the person who put this “garbage” “out on the internet” and is now calling for censorship of the internet. :rolleyes: Sorry buddy, but just because your kid posted something inappropriate on the internet does not mean you get to censor MY rights to use said internet.
Does he think his son wouldn’t have killed himself if there was no internet, or if he would have been prevented from overdosing if he weren’t “allowed” to do that on the internet?
People who are grieving sometimes say things that are not well-thought-out. I give the guy a pass for this one. As long as he’s not heading up some foundation to Censor The Internet or whatever, it’s understandable for him to lash out in his grief.
The other fucked-up (and false) claim the father is making is that internet users “egged him on” and “jeered and taunted” the kid. Um, no. I read the thread transcript (Google cache). Here is the approximate timeline:
3 am : Biggs sets up his streaming video
3:10 - 3:15 am: Biggs posts about the pills he just took, then answers one question (he is asked “why”? and posts “cuz I want to die, duh”). He then cuts and pastes a suicide note onto the forum.
That is the last time he posts. He apparently walked away from the computer and laid down on the bed immediately after hitting “send” on the suicide note. We know this because a few minutes later at 3:18 am, someone watching the channel comments that Biggs “is trying to sleep or something”.
He never gets back up again to read anything. So he never saw any of the comments made about/to him except the one single person who asked “why”?. He was only online for about 20 minutes, the amount of time it took to set up the channel, pop the pills, post the note and go lie down.
So, how does this equate to the father claiming Biggs was “egged on”?
*Biggs Sr, a maths professor at Broward College, said he last spoke to his son early on Wednesday morning. They spoke sometime between 4 and 5 am about Biggs Sr’s new GPS system.
Biggs Jr then asked his dad when he’d be home. It is not clear if the conversation occurred before or after Biggs Jr took the pills.
Biggs Jr, who was in his second year of studying at Broward College, also said he was going to drop off some food at his father’s office some time on Wednesday afternoon.
When Biggs Sr didn’t see a meal on his desk, he drove to one of their favourite restaurants, bought dinner and went home about 4.30 pm.*
Wait, what? First, since when do math professers work the night shift? He’s gone all night and almost all day too, and only finally came home at 4:30 pm when no food arrived?
Second, there is no possible way he talked to his son anytime after 3:18 am, we know this from the webcam.
Yet, in another interveiw, the father lashes out at internet users, saying “Where were they all the time?” Um, where were YOU, Dad?
It’s flat out revolting that you’ve choosen to jump on the father who has just lost his son about this.
Maybe I’ve missed this and it’s in another interview with the father somewhere, but cite that the father has called for censorship of the internet? Simply saying there’s a lot of garbage out there that shouldn’t be doesn’t cut it as a call for internet censorship. For that matter, you know what? Even if he did called for censorship, so fucking what? He a grieving father for fucks sake, and it’s not like his being in favor of censorship is going to suddenly stop you from looking at porn.
It’s still pretty douchey of people to encourage someone (even if they don’t know him) to commit suicide. The more I know about people, the more I hate them.
Sure. But that’s not actually what happened here. The kid has posted numerous fake attention-seeking or “pranky” suicide “threats” before on bb.com. He was even repeatedly warned by the mods, and even banned for a month for doing this.
So when he posted yet another one, NO ONE BELIEVED HIM. Why should they? So some people just yawned and said “ya whateva” and “if you’re gonna do it, then fuckin do it”. They did this becuase they’d been trolled and had their chains yanked by this kid over and over.
Of course it’s unconcionable if people egg on what they KNOW or should know is a REAL suicide threat or attempt, but again, that’s not at all what went down here.
Actually, the ‘egging on’ supposedly did happen, just not on the body building site. According to some of the people who posted in the actual thread the day it happen (the one Biggs started himself), there was plenty of trash talking encouraging him on in the IRC chat that ran simultaneously with his webcam on justin.tv.
If you’d like to check it out, you can get to what I’m talking about by Googling the thread title, plus each page number, and then accessing the cache.
