The Internet has its virtues and, sadly, it also has many troubling aspects, as a recent story out of Broward County, Florida proved.

19-year-old college student Abraham Biggs committed suicide by swallowing a lethal dose of pills, as several online voyeurs from a chat room watched.

Biggs, a frequent visitor to a bodybuilder chat room forum, announced his intentions to kill himself, turning on his webcam, which was viewed by other members. The general response was far from humane, as some joked that he had not taken a sufficient amount of pills, made other derisive remarks and egged him on. Only a few tried to half-heartedly talk Biggs out of his actions.

As the dying teen lay on the bed for hours, his life ebbing away, those who watched did nothing, continuing to make fun of him. Those who admit that they looked at the live webcam of the suicide now claim that everyone thought it was staged, since the troubled Biggs had mentioned doing himself in on other occasions.

When someone finally decided to get in touch with the forum’s owner, after it was apparent that the young college student was not moving, the moderator was contacted. Once he was able to pinpoint the location of Biggs, Broward County authorities were called.

Unfortunately, it was too late by then.

When the police arrived at the place where Biggs was and broke the door down, they discovered the dead body of the 19-year-old on the bed, the event still being viewed by as many as 1,500 Internet audience members.

While some people were stunned, others watching continued to post callous remarks and joke about the whole situation.

This is not just disturbing because a young man’s life is lost. This is a ghastly reflection on how the Internet seems to have spawned a legion of sadistic morons, incapable of feeling any real connection to their fellow human beings. They are so obsessed by the cyber world they have immersed themselves in that they have lost the ability to feel compassion or pathos for others. The World Wide Web, which provides them with anonymity, means that those who are insecure in their offline existences can reinvent themselves as cruel cyber-bullies, much as many of those who viewed the suicide did.

The tragedy is not only that this unhappy teen is dead and that his family is suffering, but that the virtual spectators he left behind are still walking around in the world, their consciences untouched by what they witnessed.

No suicide threat should ever be taken lightly, no matter how many times it has been made. Had just one person out of those 1,500 who watched contacted somebody for help as soon as it was clear that Abraham Biggs was following through on his threat, he probably would be alive today.

That, to me, makes them little more than accomplices.

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