Shooting a Horror Video For Russian YouTube Counterart Ends In Real Death

Svetlana Gladkova,

on May 22, 2009,

Some of you may remember the latest terrible story of a 19-year old suicide while broadcasting everything live on Justin.tv. This was a terrible story and many people were outraged with the behavior of the people watching everything without actually understanding the guy was serious and calling the police or trying to help him in some other manner - until it was too late to save him.

At the time everyone was trying to blame someone for the tragedy with the audience of Justin.tv being the most popular and easy target and internet as a whole an additional one since availability of such tools is supposed to provoke tragedies like this one. But I claimed that we should not blame the internet but should instead blame the society where the overall indifference and insensibility make people feel alone when surrounded by real people - even if it is in a virtual environment.

And while I keep insisting that internet is nothing but a smaller copy of the overall society, right now I am inclined to tell that sometimes internet tools are really to blame for teaching kids do what they really should not and encouraging them to do things that can lead to a terrible tragedy.

The latest example comes from Russia and the story is totally terrible. Online video is huge in Russia and seems to be growing huger every day with people sharing viral online videos everywhere and even the country’s president having a video blog of his own. People who are featured in some of the viral videos or who are their authors can achieve immense popularity - both in the online community and offline as various TV shows now have the habit of demonstrating the hottest online videos as well.

So it is no wonder that many people, teenagers in particular, are very enthusiastic about prospects of becoming such online super stars and are prepared to do just about everything to achieve such popularity - like the guy who hung himself when shooting a horror video for RuTube.

As the name suggests, RuTube is a Russian equivalent of YouTube: this is a simple video hosting that has also recently turned all their millions of registered users into video bloggers by providing everyone with the functionality to have a personal video blog in addition to simply uploading and watching videos and commenting on them.

The 16-year old boy from a small Russian town supposedly wanted to get his share of online fame so he wanted to shoot a video for RuTube featuring a scene of the guy hanging himself -without actually hanging himself, of course. Since he was both the director and the actor of the small movie, no one could help him when he fell off the chair and actually hang himself.

When the body was discovered and the police arrived, no investigation was needed because the entire process was readily available in video format. Fortunately, the video never made it online because there was no one to upload it - even though some of the cruel commentators already suggest this video could really make the guy a super star, even though he would never enjoy the popularity himself.

This is a totally terrifying example of what the desire to reach online popularity can result in and I do hope that popular video hosting websites will come up with some guidelines for teenagers to shoot their movies in a risk-free manner - so that this terrible accident does not become the first one in a line of numerous similar events.

Via (in Russian)

Do Web Publishers Deserve Control over Their Ads?

Teens are More Active in Everything Online in Russia, Expect a Boom

Deathcasting of Abraham Biggs: Blame the Society, Don’t Blame the Internet

Russian Internet Segment Invaded By Foreign Pirates

32 Comments (Subscribe to rss)

Daniel Sale - May 22, 2009 at 02:24 pm PDT

These things are awful, but they don't occur with as much regularity as, say, when a television newscast reports a suicide. In fact, here in the U.S., it's normal for local newscasts not to cover suicides, because they know there's a copycat effect in which clusters of other people commit suicide.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, what I think is going on is that there's a few cases here and there, but it's hardly even comparable to the number of tragedies we see happening in real life. But I'd agree that the whole "doing it for fame" aspect is something new and apparently confined to the Internet, and that if not kept in check, could spiral out of control and lead to many horrible events.
profy - May 23, 2009 at 01:53 am PDT

Daniel, true, I am aware of the suicides coverage aspect and I agree that media people should really avoid coverage of these events to avoid repeated cases. But when it comes to this particular tragedy, I believe that we should really pay attention to such events so that hopefully more teenagers will realize that their hunt for fame can end in a tragedy. I am not sure it will really help but maybe they will at least demonstrate more caution where they should.
Promovare - May 23, 2009 at 05:41 am PDT

Well, it's a little bit extreme for these days. Considering we live in 21st century.
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Jeanmarie - May 25, 2009 at 07:27 am PDT

I don´t think society should be blamed for this. I think the guy just lacked common sense. Trying to shoot a video in which it seems as if you´re hanging yourself, all on your own…. Doesn´t seem very smart.
profy - May 25, 2009 at 08:02 am PDT

The thing is that it just could not even happen earlier - and this is what is both good about this century and what is bad about it.
profy - May 25, 2009 at 08:04 am PDT

Of course it does not sound smart at all but I think there is one particular aspect where the society can be partly blamed: the fact that the teenagers now aspire to fame without stopping at anything at all.
Difuzoare Auto - May 26, 2009 at 12:52 am PDT

About the copycat effect; even if the major tv station don't cover suicides, on the internet you can find all sorts of info and media about suicides, mass killings and so on. If I were the parent of a teenager, at least until he or she turns 15-16, I would monitoir closely what kind of sites my child is visiting.
profy - May 26, 2009 at 08:35 am PDT

Absolutely true and as far as I know, all the informed parents do exactly that because you never know what type of information your child bumps into online without you realizing it at all. Of course this is responsibility of parents but in countries like Russia this is not that obvious yet because there are numerous families where parents have a very poor understanding of what internet is at all - and unfortunately only parents can educate their children of proper online behavior.
Difuzoare Auto - May 27, 2009 at 12:41 am PDT

Then I guess we need to educate the parents or at least hope that with our generation future parents will be more tech savy and understand the importance of monitoring the sources where our children get their information.
profy - May 27, 2009 at 05:33 am PDT

Yes, educating the parents is exactly what is needed in many countries like here in Russia and I hope that coverage of such tragic events will help at least some parents understand the dangers better. But of course the next generations of parents will obviously be more educated so we will probably have less tragedies like this one.
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