Pure hypothetical here.
Assume a web based forum existed, and one of the conversation topics got into some sort of sensationalistic fear-mongering based discussion.
One of the users got very nervous, and posted concerns.
Another user, essentially gave the indication that suicide was a good option. And did this repeatedly in several similar threads.
Many of the other regular users contacted the forum adminstration for the removal of this user, but their worries were ignored.
If one of the users (let's say a 14 year old person, somewhere in the world) ended up killing themself based on the suggestion they received from that one particular abusive user, can the forum be held accountable for negligence, considering so many other users had warned them about this specific event?
Does nationality of all members come into play at all in such a scenario? (Diversity of citizenship).
Or are all suicides deviod of "wrongful death" and "negligence" charges?
D-Mac
i don't think a precedent has been set. when you involve the internet, it gets international. when you get suicides, you get a lot of blame. in the end, whatever factors triggered it, i think the law says it was the suicide vicitms actions (and therefore resposibility) for the end of the person's life. with a younger user though, i wouldn;t be surprised if there was some related movement to make what you infer a possibility...
i heard a few years back about a bunch of teenagers that used myspace to trick a classmate that a "hott guy" was interested in her. that fake profile then "dumped" her and insulted her and whatever. the girl killed herself over it. i don't know what the result was, legally, but the kids who faked the profile clearly showed disrespectable behavior. i'm fairly certain that myspace was not responsible for such a tragedy.
IF someone had spoken out to myspace administration about that specific profile, AND the particular emotional state of the suicice victim, i'm not sure how any legal reprorcussions would have developed towards mysapce.
remember, the "alleged" were minors as well as the "victim" in that situation. i do not know if the law got involved. i do know myspace was not legally responsible...
but like i said, there was no "ourage of the myspace community" about the fake profile with the potential of suicide recommendation, since those messages were probably private, and not liste din comment form.
Mr Placid
The most analogous case I've seen was where the family of a murder victim sued the Jenny Jones show about seven years ago. What happened is that Jenny Jones ran a show, whose topic was something like, "Secret admirers." Jenny invited two persons to the show, Amedure and Schmitz. On national TV, Amedure announced that he was Schmitz's secret admirer. Probably no big deal, except that they were both men, Amedure was gay, and Schmitz was not. Not even a week later, Schmitz freaked out and killed Amedure.
Amedure's family sued the show for wrongful death. A jury actually awarded $ 25 mil to the family. However, that decision was overturned by a Michigan appeals court.
So, I suppose that depending on the exact facts of your hypothetical, there could be a situation where a forum operator might be liable, but it would certainly be a stretch.
Orignal From: Q&A: Law - Negligence - Could a forum owner be held accountable for a suicide?
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