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NAPLES — Fast action by a couple of Collier County sheriff’s deputies on a sleepy Friday morning may have saved the life of a 12-year-old girl who authorities say was threatening to kill herself with a knife while chatting on a webcam.

The case bears a striking similarity to a story of a 19-year-old college student who did, in fact, commit suicide in Broward County in late November while others watched live on the Web.

Whether or not the Collier County case was a legitimate call for help or a bad joke by a preteen, experts say so-called cyber suicide is a growing problem in the information age.

At 2:31 a.m. on Friday, a call came into the Sheriff’s Office’s Communications Center from a man in Texas who claimed to be chatting online with a girl from the Naples area. The man said the girl, who claimed to be 17, held a knife to her throat and arms and threatened to kill herself, the Sheriff’s Office reported.

The Texas man, whose name and age were not released, told authorities he was concerned about the girl.

Communications Center Supervisor Justin Koval immediately called Special Crimes Bureau Investigator Scott Rapisarda, who was at home and asleep.

Based on the information provided, Rapisarda was able to locate the Web site, create an account and track down the girl’s screen name, authorities said. Rapisarda found the girl on the webcam, sent her instant messages and began a private online conversation, while posing as a young girl and attempting to gather information about her whereabouts, the Sheriff’s Office reported.

Rapisarda fed information to Koval, who ran each lead through a variety of law enforcement and public databases in an effort to locate the girl. However, none of the attempts panned out.

Around 4 a.m., Rapisarda got the break he needed when the girl told him she lived near a clubhouse in an East Naples community. He was able to narrow down the location and deputies were dispatched to the house where the girl was living with her grandparents, reports said. Deputies found a knife next to a computer.

The girl, whose name and address were not released, was transported to a local health center for evaluation.

Attempts to reach Rapisarda and Koval for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.

Dan Reidenberg of the Minnesota-based Suicide Awareness Voices of Education — or SAVE — said cyber suicide is a growing problem, and he “could not be more concerned about it.”

“Public suicide has been going on since the beginning of time,” Reidenberg said. “The use of the Internet or the Web is almost a modern-day version of that.”

In late November, 19-year-old Abraham Biggs of Pembroke Pines died in his home, and live on his webcam, after overdosing on a toxic combination of drugs meant to treat insomnia and depression. Biggs started blogging about his suicide plans about 12 hours before he was found dead in bed.

It is unclear how many people were watching the suicide on the Web site bodybuilding.com, which had 672,000 unique visitors in October, the Associated Press reported. Some of the viewers egged Biggs on, while others debated his method, and others tried to talk him out of it, the AP reported.

Kim Rodgers, a licensed social worker and director of clinical services for the East Naples-based Project HELP, said that anyone threatening suicide who reaches out, even on the Internet, is looking for help.

“If they do it in public, either with people physically present or online with other people watching, that’s still a call for help,” Rodgers said. “They want to follow through with it, but there’s still some hesitation.”

It’s possible, Rodgers said, that someone would threaten suicide online as a joke or to get attention.

Anyone contemplating suicide or needing to talk to a professional can call Project HELP’s 24-hour crisis hot line at (239) 262-7227.