Killing Me Softly

Many people want to be famous and in 2008, fame means exposure on the Internet. It used to be just coming up with a clichéd MySpace profile, but now Abraham Biggs, Jr. took it to the next level: he killed himself by overdosing live via his webcam. And, true to form for most whiny Americans, his dad wants the government to regulate things—namely the Internet—to avoid future live suicides. (You know, because government regulation always leads us down the road to paradise.)

Abraham Biggs, Sr. theorizes that since people egged his son on, and since people watched the suicide occur, and since no one helped save his son, that the only answer would be the government. Says the father:

I think after this incident and probably other incidents that have occurred in the past, they all point to some kind of regulation is necessary. I think it is wrong to have this happen for hours without any action being taken from the people in charge. Where were they all the time?

Who are these “people in charge”? Well, since none exist, Mr. Biggs reasons that some people need to be put in charge—hence, his call for regulation of the Internet. Who would these people be? I mean, seriously: we’re going to raise taxes to pay people to sit and surf the Internet all day to find “bad” stuff and then report it to the local cops? Or do we just go a step further and devise a plan where the countries of the globe place limitations on how many sites can exist, what can be said on the sites, and who can have access to them?

I don’t mean to sound heartless, but it’s becoming commonplace to see emotionally-driven “solutions” that seem to always say the same thing: the government has to fix the problem. Even Mr. Biggs himself refers to incidents “in the past,” which might be a reference to the Megan Meier case.

Even the Meier case has turned into a “we-need-to-charge-her-with-something-so-who-cares-what-it-is” situation. In that case, Lori Drew has been accused of bullying the 13-year-old Meier into committing suicide after creating a fake MySpace profile. The public then became outraged, but the simpletons in the United States didn’t seem to understand that legally not much could be done. “So what?” thought the masses; “We need to get her for something—anything.”

And so, they might have to get Drew on charges that she gained access to MySpace’s servers without authorization because she used an alias to create the profile. Never mind that if this charge is what’s used to convict her that it could open a can of worms that few have considered because it would instantly criminalize anyone who signs up for anything online with an alias.

Just imagine if the Meier-Drew case leads to a law saying that all Internet sites, blogs, or comments require the author’s full name, address, and phone number to be listed next to that comment. Do you really think that it wouldn’t have a chilling effect on speech? How many people would speak openly on political issues if they have to put their full names with their comments and then fear retribution?

So goes anything that offers too much freedom. Maybe Mr. Biggs can ask Barack Obama to start a Department of Internet Regulation and make him secretary. Maybe Mr. Biggs can also try to face the fact that the Internet didn’t cause his son’s suicide; it simply acted as a way to show it to the world in a narcissistic manner.

Reference

Larimer, Sarah. “Father Appalled by Virtual Audience to Son’s Death.” ABC News. 22 Nov. 2008.

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