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She wanted to take her own life.
Naika Venant turned to Facebook Live.
Livestreamed Suicides
Similar to 12-year-old Katelyn Nicole Davis, who streamed her suicide on the app Live.me, Naika Venant was a troubled kid. She was trapped in a failed foster system. Records from the Florida Department of Children and Families showed her life was riddled with years of abuse and mental health issues. In January 2017, the 14-year-old took to Facebook Live for more than two hours before she hanged herself in the bathroom of her Miami Gardens foster home. While public suicides are not new, livestreaming technology has allowed far more people across the globe to see situations like Naika's play out in front of them in real time.
One of the earliest suicides ever livestreamed on the internet was that of 19-year-old Abraham Biggs, who in 2008 broadcasted his overdose on the public streaming site Justin.tv. That site was shut down in 2014 to create Twitch. Since then, at least dozens of other people have taken to different social media sites to livestream their ends. The creators of this series were not able to find any information on exactly how many people have died by suicide on any livestream platform.
Naika's live suicide was viewed at least 1,000 times and amassed more than 3,000 comments before it was taken down. While some of those comments showed concern, some viewers reported seeing comments that seemed to mock Naika. |
Opportunities for Intervention
An instructional video created by Facebook in partnership with multiple suicide prevention groups suggests that her suicide could have been prevented had someone properly reported it. Surprisingly, Facebook's lead suicide prevention researcher told USA Today that cutting the stream off could actually make matters worse, and instead Facebook began incorporating a feature that provides resources to the person streaming as they go.
This leaves opportunities for intervention not only by Facebook, but also by those watching. Watch What's Next? for more information on how social media sites are working to prevent suicide and other violence on livestream.
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How does this influence us?
Horrifying or Desensitizing?Since its creation, livestream has been used in ways no one could have expected. Suicides, shootings, riots, sexual assaults and many other kinds of violence have been broadcast totally uncensored. In general, these are seen as misuses of the technology.
On the receiving end, these livestreamed events can be emotionally triggering, and the immediate and intimate nature of livestreams makes the violence that more harmful. "This isn't the happy, fun, pretty... This is the dirty, dark, ugly," said Meggen Sixbey, a licensed mental health counselor at the University of Florida. "Watching something live can feel very horrifying, and at the same time, does it desensitize us to things in some way?" Companies like Facebook have established different ground rules for these types of posts and takes down ones that glorify or celebrate crimes, but will leave up related content if it is condemning or raising awareness about the issue. |
Click on the red states below to see examples of livestreamed violence |
Performance Crimes
In some instances, as more people view livestreamed crimes there is not only a risk of copycat behavior, but also these kinds of videos can become so popular that they can fuel acts of what Raymond Surette, Ph.D., calls performance crime.
"Ultimately what defines a performance crime is that there is some sort of audience; somebody has an audience in mind for this crime and the recording of it," said Surette, professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida and expert in crime and the media. "And there is a distribution plan, which might be anything from a court room to some sort of global audience."
"Ultimately what defines a performance crime is that there is some sort of audience; somebody has an audience in mind for this crime and the recording of it," said Surette, professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida and expert in crime and the media. "And there is a distribution plan, which might be anything from a court room to some sort of global audience."
Performance crimes have been happening for decades, but historically they have been limited to crimes such as terrorism and political acts of protest (Surette, 2015). In the case of Steve Stephens, who shot and killed a random elderly man on the streets of Cleveland while on Facebook Live before killing himself, neither of those are believed to be motivators. Surette's research suggests the thought of becoming a celebrity, or leaving a legacy, plays a role in contemporary performance crimes.
In the process, these criminal performers only end up creating and sharing the evidence used to prosecute them. So, what's next? |