Off late there are too many disturbing reports about
suicides in India. Well, if a researcher checks the graph, it can be seen that
suicide rate probably goes higher immediately after the school leaving exams
are finished or the exam results are out. Our young generation is stressed and
many of them cannot take the pressure of being humiliated by peers and rejected
by colleges they dreamt for. Yet another type of people who take this extreme step
that attract my attention is those who commit suicide with web-cams on. Now this
is really disturbing. The latest of this ‘brigade’ is a Chennai boy who took
his own life with his web cam on. Before him, there were several others who did
this and found their names in the news reports. While this boy in question
finished his life for poor studies, others include those who committed suicide
due to fight with girl friends, due to work pressure etc. In the first case, I feel that the deceased
probably had taken this extreme step to actually threaten the girlfriend on the
other side of the screen. My claim can become a ‘truth’ only when the person
witnessing it is properly investigated and the online communication is thoroughly
investigated. The second case and cases like this boy in question may need more
in-depth research, as whether they were persuaded by someone online at the time
of death etc. But thinking from the other side, it is disturbing for the viewer
to see a real suicide taking place infront of his/her eyes (through his
camera). Ironically in India attempt to suicide is considered a penal offence
and once the death has happened, the witnesses may face stringent police
prosecution on several legal questions including persuading to even negligence
in stopping the act. This is the case for many other countries too. But imagine
a witness’s plight if he/she is a minor, or he/she never expected to witness
such ghastly acts till he actually saw it. The prolonged process of
investigating the evidences through checking the communications conveyed
between the deceased or the one who tried to commit suicide and the witness on
the other side should also obviously include cyber forensic test to ensure whether there were any third party
activity involved in it or not. All these may leave the ‘witness’ even more
traumatised.
Probably this is one of the worst examples
of misuse of webcams by users. In one way, people must understand that attempting
or committing suicide and showing death to the world is no big act of heroism. It
creates bad example for others. On the other hand, it must also be understood
that now time has come to take up interdisciplinary research to highlight this
problem which may actually create new brands of cyber offences and cyber
criminals.
Please Note: Do not violate
copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this
blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as
“Halder D. (2012), “Showing death to the world
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