Beware of suicidal minds online

'Live' suicide of teenager on Internet exposes cynical netizens and warns society to take measures to help desperate people

What many initially assumed was a stunt to attract people's attention online turned out to be a real suicide by a frustrated 19-year-old in Luzhou of Southwest China's Sichuan province. The most shocking part: the horrifying act was seen live on the Internet on Nov 30. And the saddest part: the teenager might not have committed suicide had he not been instigated or egged on by some sick and mindless "live viewers".

The tragedy teaches us about the kind of role we should play if we encounter such extremities in this Internet era.

The teenager, surnamed Zeng, chose to interact with netizens via his weibo, or micro blog, after contemplating suicide and posted dozens of online messages about what was going on in his mind, along with some photographs of sleeping tablets, tapes and a charcoal fire in a pot. After a "failed love affair" with a girl in the virtual world, Zeng fell into depression.

The youth shared his state of mind with netizens before deciding to take his own life. "I've decided to leave the world after deep consideration, and don't persuade me to live. I just hope it won't be too painful," read one of his weibo posts. "I cannot bring myself to live any more as the drugs have taken effect and I've lost strength completely ... ," he wrote.

Many netizens tried to persuade him against committing suicide, but some dismissed his determination as a "ploy" to grab wider online attention and quite a few urged him to go ahead with his plan. "You have not died after such a long time and you must die" now, a netizen told him.

No one thinks the skeptic netizens actually wanted Zeng to take his life. And the doubting Thomases' remarks should be judged in the light of their assumed belief that Zeng would not commit suicide. But sadly the teenager was serious.