Facebook Live is primarily seen as a tool for brands to raise awareness for their content as well as a tool for people to give others a glimpse into their everyday lives. There seems to be no standards for acts of violence and, sadly, death, on the social media platform. We've seen police shootings, a BASE jumper live stream his death, but on Thursday another tragic story came out regarding a 12-year-old girl who reportedly hung herself after revealing a terrible secret while broadcasting from Facebook Live.
12-year-old Katelyn Nicole Davis from Cedartown, Georgia took to Facebook Live to reveal that she had been sexually abused by a family member. Katelyn proceeded to hang herself in her front yard, with the video going for another 20 minutes. A woman's voice can be heard off-screen calling Katelyn's name during the video. Unfortunately, the power of the Internet took force and the video now seems to go viral. It was removed from Katelyn's Facebook page, but Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd told Fox 5 that his department was "contacted by a police officer from California who saw it the night of the event." Since then, the department has reportedly been contacted from people from as far away as Great Britain in an effort to have the video removed from sites as well as those duplicating the footage. It even ended up on YouTube at one point and reportedly amassed more than 40,000 views before being removed. Katelyn talked about being sexually abused through her blog. She reportedly wrote about being beaten with a studded belt and claimed that a male family member tried to rape her. She also written about suffering from depression.
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
The public took to social media to express their outpouring of support and love toward Katelyn and her family.