A teenager commits suicide and allows others to watch his death over the internet. The first reaction is: how can it be prevented? It seems, short of taking all live videos down from the web, it can’t.

The suggestion some watching this young man's suicide may have encouraged his death is shocking, but that says more about the individuals than it does about video technology, used by the vast majority of users to harmlessly connect and socialise with others. The real problem with disturbing content like this is how can it be taken down?

YouTube has terms of use violations governing situations like this, which means that violent and inappropriate footage is not allowed to be posted. However, because there are many millions of videos uploaded on the internet every day, it is impossible to moderate each one before it hits the web. YouTube relies on its “community” – you and I – to notify it when inappropriate material finds its way onto the site. It then reacts as quickly as possible to take down the content.

Justin.tv, the live-streaming site which screened this young man’s suicide, has similar policies in place. What makes it particularly difficult for it to police its content is that the videos are shown live, making it hard for the site to react quickly when shocking incidents like this occur.

The site’s chief executive has apologised, explaining: “This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our terms of service.” Essentially, just like the system is supposed to work.

In fact, it was members of the forum who watched the incident who contacted the police. Unfortunately, the shocking truth is there is little more that Justin.tv could have done about it.

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