Kevin Whitrick | |
---|---|
Born | Kevin Neil Whitrick 17 August 1964 Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England |
Died | 21 March 2007 42) Wellington, Shropshire, England | (aged
Cause of death | Suicide by hanging |
Occupation | Electrical Engineer |
Spouse | Paula Whitrick (m. 1988;sep. 2005) |
Children | 2 |
Kevin Neil Whitrick (17 August 1964 – 21 March 2007) was a British electrical engineer who committed suicide by hanging himself while in an online chat room. [1]
Whitrick had been married to his wife Paula since 1988, and they had two children. At the time of his death, the marriage broke down about two years prior, and he was living separately from his family. [2] In 2006, Whitrick was severely injured in a car accident and suffered long-term health consequences. [2]
In March 2007, Whitrick was using the Paltalk video chat service, in a special "insult" chatroom with about 60 other users where people "have a go at each other". [2] He stood on a chair, punched a hole in his ceiling and placed a rope around a joist, then tied the other end around his neck and stepped off the chair in order to asphyxiate himself. Some people thought this was a prank, until his face started turning blue. Some people in the chat room encouraged him by saying things like "just get on with it", while others tried desperately to find his address. A member in the room contacted the police, who arrived at the scene two minutes later. Whitrick was pronounced dead at 11:15 pm GMT. [1]
The death was widely reported in the media. Concerns were raised over the possibility that it could inspire further suicides, [3] as well as the webcam footage becoming available in perpetuity on the internet. [4] Detectives traced about 100 chatroom users to question them about their role in the suicide, though the Crown Prosecution Service did not pursue any criminal charges against them. [5] [6]
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from real-time online chat and online interaction with strangers to fully immersive graphical social environments.
A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in video telephony, live streaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripheral devices, and are commonly connected to a device using USB or wireless protocols.
Online chat is any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly. Thereby, a feeling similar to a spoken conversation is created, which distinguishes chatting from other text-based online communication forms such as Internet forums and email. Online chat may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.
Brandon Carl Vedas, also known by his nickname ripper on IRC, was an American computer enthusiast, recreational drug user and member of the Shroomery.org community who died of a multiple drug overdose while discussing what he was doing via chat and webcam. His death led to debate about the responsibilities and roles of online communities in life-threatening situations.
Yahoo! Messenger was an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo ID" which also allowed access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail. The service also offered VoIP, file transfers, webcam hosting, a text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.
A suicide pact is an agreed plan between two or more individuals to die by suicide. The plan may be to die together, or separately and closely timed.
Paltalk is a proprietary video group chat service that enables users to communicate by video, Internet chat, or voice. It offers chat rooms and the ability for users to create their own public virtual chat room. Paltalk Desktop is available on macOS and Windows, and Paltalk Video Chat App is available for Android and iOS. While basic services are free of charge and basic software is free to download, fee-based memberships and paid upgrades to more capable versions are offered by AVM Software, the creators of Paltalk.
Stickam was a live-streaming video website that launched in 2005. Stickam featured user-submitted pictures, audio, video, and most prominently, live streaming video chat. The site quickly expanded to include live shows and produced content from MTV, G4 TV, CBS Radio, NATPE, CES, and many others, as well as live performances and shows with numerous musicians and celebrities.
A webcam model is a video performer who streams on the Internet with a live webcam broadcast. A webcam model often performs erotic acts online, such as stripping, masturbation, or sex acts in exchange for money, goods, or attention. They may also sell videos of their performances. Once viewed as a small niche in the world of adult entertainment, camming became "the engine of the porn industry," according to Alec Helmy, the publisher of XBIZ, a sex-trade industry journal.
Internet homicide refers to killing in which victim and perpetrator met online, in some cases having known each other previously only through the Internet. Also Internet killer is an appellation found in media reports for a person who broadcasts the crime of murder online or who murders a victim met through the Internet. Depending on the venue used, other terms used in the media are Internet chat room killer, Craigslist killer, Facebook serial killer. Internet homicide can also be part of an Internet suicide pact or consensual homicide. Some commentators believe that reports on these homicides have overemphasized their connection to the Internet.
Sextortion employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from the victim. Sextortion refers to the broad category of sexual exploitation in which abuse of power is the means of coercion, as well as to the category of sexual exploitation in which threatened release of sexual images or information is the means of coercion.
Chatroulette is an online chat website that pairs random users with a choice between two other users for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website begin an online chat with another visitor. At any point, either user may leave the current chat by initiating another random connection.
Chatroom is a 2010 British psychological thriller drama film directed by Hideo Nakata from a screenplay by Enda Walsh, based on Walsh's 2005 play of the same name. The film follows five teenagers who meet on an online chatroom and encourage each other's bad behaviour.
William Francis Melchert-Dinkel is an American former licensed practical nurse who was convicted in 2011 of encouraging people to commit suicide. He told those contemplating suicide what methods worked best, that it was an acceptable choice to take their own life, that they would be better off in heaven, and/or falsely entered into suicide pacts with them. He is a married father of two. His wife, Joyce Melchert-Dinkel, stood by him accepting his suicide sexual fetish through court.
Advocacy of suicide, also known as pro-suicide, has occurred in many cultures and subcultures. Confucianism holds that one should give up one's life, if necessary, either passively or actively, for the sake of upholding the cardinal moral values of ren (altruism) and yi (righteousness). The Japanese military during World War II encouraged and glorified kamikaze attacks, and Japanese society as a whole has been described as "suicide-tolerant".
Tyler Clementi was an American student at Rutgers University–New Brunswick who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River on September 22, 2010, at the age of 18. On September 19, 2010, without Clementi's knowledge, Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, used a webcam on his dorm room computer and his hallmate Molly Wei's computer to view Clementi kissing another man. Clementi found out after Ravi posted about the webcam incident on Twitter. Two days later, Ravi urged friends and Twitter followers to watch a second encounter between Clementi and his companion, though the viewing never occurred.
State of New Jersey vs. Dharun Ravi was a criminal trial held in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Superior Court from February 24, 2012, to March 16, 2012, in which former Rutgers University undergraduate student Dharun Ravi was tried and convicted on 15 counts of crimes involving invasion of privacy, attempted invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, tampering with evidence, witness tampering, and hindering apprehension or prosecution.
The Den is a 2013 American slasher film by Zachary Donohue and his feature film directorial debut. The film is shot in screenlife and found footage style and was first released in Russia as смерть в сети, Death Online on December 23, 2013. It was given a simultaneous limited theatrical and VOD release on March 14, 2014 through IFC Midnight. It stars Melanie Papalia as a young woman who discovers a murder via webcam.
Kim Jung-hwan, known professionally as Eddy Kim, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He rose to fame as a contestant on the television talent show Superstar K 4 in 2012. He released his first EP, The Manual, in 2014.
On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were African Americans, were murdered and three were injured. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch, but the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. He formally entered a plea of "not guilty" on May 19, 2022. On November 28, 2022, Gendron pleaded guilty to all state charges in the shooting, including murder, domestic terrorism, and hate crimes. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; as of that date, federal charges are still ongoing, and the federal prosecution also expressed their intention to seek the death penalty.
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