Amanda Todd: The Impact of Cyber Bullying

Dunno if u guys know bout this or not, but i post it anyway

Amanda Michelle Todd (died October 10, 2012) was a 15-year-old
Canadian teenager who committed suicide attributed to cyber-bullying
through the social networking website Facebook On 7 September 2012, Todd
posted a video on YouTube in which she used a series of flash cards to
tell of her experience of being bullied. In it she regrets sending an
image of her breasts to a man who later circulated it around the
internet.
Shortly before 6:00 pm on October 10, 2012, the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police were called to her home in Port Coquitlam, to investigate what
they refer to as a "sudden death". They have since launched a full
investigation into Todd's death. Police are conducting interviews,
reviewing content at social media sites, and are actively monitoring
pages.
Christy Clark, the Premier of British Columbia, made an online
statement of condolence suggesting a national discussion be made
discussing criminalizing cyber-bullying.
Todd was a 10th-grade student at CABE Secondary in Coquitlam.

YouTube message

On 7 September 2012, Todd posted a 9-minute YouTube video entitled My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self harm,
in which she used a series of flash cards to tell of her experience of
being bullied. The video post went viral, receiving over 1,600,000 views
by 13 October 2012, with online newspapers around the world linking to
it.
Summary of message

The following is a summary of statements made in the video:
While in seventh grade, Todd met with friends over video chat
to meet new people over the internet. She was complimented with such
terms as "stunning", "beautiful", and "perfect". During one of these
sessions, someone wanted her to show her breasts, and she complied.
A year later, an anonymous user left a message on her Facebook
profile. A user who had her personal details blackmailed her,
threatening to send topless pictures of Todd to others if she did not
give them a "show". At 4 am during Christmas break, police arrived at
Todd's door, possibly to inform her that photos of her breasts were
circulating on the Internet. She became sick, started to experience
anxiety, major depression and panic disorder.
After moving to a different home, she began to take drugs and alcohol. Her anxiety worsened, and she couldn't go out of the house.
A year later, the person who had blackmailed her re-entered her life,
posting a list of her friends and school. He used an image of her
breasts as his profile picture. Subsequently, she was ostracized by her
peers. She began self-mutilation by cutting herself. She changed schools again. Within the month, her situation had improved, despite her isolation.
A month after that, she began communicating with an "old guy friend".
They exchanged text messages. He told her that he liked her. She knew
he had a girlfriend. He invited her to his home while his girlfriend was
on vacation, and they engaged in some form of sex.
After a week, she received a text message warning her to get out of
school. The girlfriend and the "old guy friend" with fifteen others
came to find her. During the confrontation, the girlfriend stated "look
around nobody likes you", in the presence of approximately 50 other
students. One of the students yelled out for the girl to punch Todd.
The girlfriend then threw Todd to the ground and struck her several
times while students filmed it. Teachers ran to her aid, but she
remained in the "ditch", where her father eventually recovered her.
After arriving home, she drank bleach, and was taken to hospital by
ambulance for treatment. Upon returning home, she discovered that the
incident was reported on Facebook, with such remarks as "she deserved
it", "did you wash the mud out of your hair?", and "I hope shes dead."
Todd then moved again to live in another city with her mother. Six
months after the incident, people were still posting images of bleach,
Clorox, and ditches, and tagging her in them with comments such as "She
should try a different bleach", "I hope she dies this time and isn't so
stupid.", and "They said I hope she sees this and kills herself".
She began constantly cutting herself and taking anti-depressants, and
was receiving counselling. Around that time, she had overdosed, and
spent two days in hospital.


You can watch the video here



Truly heartbreaking.

A lot of people have heard about it and people are actually still bashing her even though she's already dead, posting inappropriate pictures onto Facebook pages dedicated to her and such. It really is disgusting how cruel some humans can be.

Sucks.

A lot of people on my facebook and Twitter have been spreading this around too.

This generation can go burn in hell. Sadistic, retarded control freaks, if I ever got my hands on one of them ( Yea being suicidal myself I know what todd is going through) I would make them cry. Anyone who knows me knows the one thing I utterly hate is bullying, of any kind. Amanda was a good looking, kind and sweet young woman, plenty of potential, wiped out because some snot nosed brat couldn't keep his hormones in check and then decided he'd take advantage of what he just got.



Rest in peace Amanda
Rest in pieces to the bullies.

Wow. I totally agree with Bakura. cyber-bullying is one of the highest causes in teen suicides. I don't understand why people do such a cruel thing. Like Bakura I was bullied in school so I started to go to catholic school in my high school year. This is why I stay away from sites like Facebook and twitter. It's also astonishing how I haven't seen anything done to try and stop cyber-bullying not that I know of. Guidance groups and counseling don't do a damn thing. So when someone online is getting bullied or you're the one bullying, just remember this.

Today, the only way to fight these things is knowledge. So much power in it, but not many people realize it. If Amanda had the chance to discover the potential in knowledge to understand few things about life and the truth about people who bullied her, this would not happen. Yet again, we can't know what was the best path for her. To fight these sorts of people and people in general, you need to have knowledge, the power to control yourself and with that, the people around you as well. She could of just ignored them, live her life and be good at it. It would just make the ones that bully others, useless noobs with no life, that look at her and see their own failures when they compare themselves with her. That's why they bully in the first place, to feel better and forget how low their own life is. If you know that, you can use it against em to make them more pathetic, freak out and lose control over themselves and the situation. I'm telling this because many online people feel low sometimes, like having no friends and the feeling when you think no one likes and or everyone hates you, similar to Amanda's case, to know that you only need a little, a little more knowledge to understand that you have no reason to feel like that, there is no such thing as depression, just open your eyes and start to live your life the way you are supposed to. No pill in the world will make you feel better if you cannot make up your mind yourself. Do not depend on what other people think about you, or how they present themselves to you, you just need your own mind and open it, then no problem in the world can hold you down from success.

You can take for example few celebs that got their tapes on the net. For example, Severina from Croatia, no one knows if she wanted it to leak or not, it seemed like it was really a private video or it was just to make us feel that way but either way, after leaking, the porn video really could ruin her life, yet it didn't. It just made her boost the fame and she knew how to deal with it in her favor. First couple of months she received so much cyber, TV and other bullying all over the country and the region, it was the main news everywhere in balkan because she was famous and hot, and a good singer, but at the end, she still appears on the stage like everywhere and is the female icon of croatia and maybe even wider, her career just got leveled up lol. People that bullied her for the sex tape, got nothing from it, she just got more powerful because she used her mind to manipulate with others that thought they were harming her but in fact she used em like stairs to climb higher. Now she is like "so what, im still the baws and the only thing you can do is watch me and desire" lol

Rest in peace Amanda, I hope the Lord will forgive you your suicide and let you enjoy the Paradise.

Amy Cool wrote:

Today, the only way to fight these things is knowledge. So much power in it, but not many people realize it. If Amanda had the chance to discover the potential in knowledge to understand few things about life and the truth about people who bullied her, this would not happen. Yet again, we can't know what was the best path for her. To fight these sorts of people and people in general, you need to have knowledge, the power to control yourself and with that, the people around you as well. She could of just ignored them, live her life and be good at it. It would just make the ones that bully others, useless noobs with no life, that look at her and see their own failures when they compare themselves with her. That's why they bully in the first place, to feel better and forget how low their own life is. If you know that, you can use it against em to make them more pathetic, freak out and lose control over themselves and the situation. I'm telling this because many online people feel low sometimes, like having no friends and the feeling when you think no one likes and or everyone hates you, similar to Amanda's case, to know that you only need a little, a little more knowledge to understand that you have no reason to feel like that, there is no such thing as depression, just open your eyes and start to live your life the way you are supposed to. No pill in the world will make you feel better if you cannot make up your mind yourself. Do not depend on what other people think about you, or how they present themselves to you, you just need your own mind and open it, then no problem in the world can hold you down from success.

You can take for example few celebs that got their tapes on the net. For example, Severina from Croatia, no one knows if she wanted it to leak or not, it seemed like it was really a private video or it was just to make us feel that way but either way, after leaking, the porn video really could ruin her life, yet it didn't. It just made her boost the fame and she knew how to deal with it in her favor. First couple of months she received so much cyber, TV and other bullying all over the country and the region, it was the main news everywhere in balkan because she was famous and hot, and a good singer, but at the end, she still appears on the stage like everywhere and is the female icon of croatia and maybe even wider, her career just got leveled up lol. People that bullied her for the sex tape, got nothing from it, she just got more powerful because she used her mind to manipulate with others that thought they were harming her but in fact she used em like stairs to climb higher. Now she is like "so what, im still the baws and the only thing you can do is watch me and desire" lol

Rest in peace Amanda, I hope the Lord will forgive you your suicide and let you enjoy the Paradise.

Amen to that.

hmmm... i feel so so serry 4 ths girl.. my gf jst had me watch the vid on utube a few hrs ago.. ppl nowadays, what they do.. D,: R.I.P Amanda Todd

Eh... this is spammed all over my FB
And now it's here.
The way people treat others in this world is utterly disgusting and at times inhumane.
I personally would have stuck out for her. I am not the type of person to see someone get bullied to such an extent and not do anything about it. Being mocked and outcasted most of my Elementary and 6th grade on middle school years... I know somewhat how it feels.

Nowadays in my schools... any form of physical violence can result in suspension or even expulsion. Bullies are dying out a little in schools now. You'd only see really messed up people in schools that are meant for them not schools for kids who want to be something in their lives.

I personally felt absolutely nothing over her death. Just how her life was pissed me off. Dunno why. I'm the type of person who isn't really hurt by death.

yeh this been blowing up on my FB newsfeed too. The sad thing is even in death people still ridicule her over the "bleach" thing. Its a shame really that her memorial facebook page up ended up turning into matter of going to hell and suicide. If god send people to hell for trying to escape through such a torture then i rather live in a place where this no god.

This is why kids shouldn't be allowed on Facebook IJS

Amy Cool wrote:

Today, the only way to fight these things is knowledge. So much power in it, but not many people realize it. If Amanda had the chance to discover the potential in knowledge to understand few things about life and the truth about people who bullied her, this would not happen. Yet again, we can't know what was the best path for her. To fight these sorts of people and people in general, you need to have knowledge, the power to control yourself and with that, the people around you as well. She could of just ignored them, live her life and be good at it. It would just make the ones that bully others, useless noobs with no life, that look at her and see their own failures when they compare themselves with her. That's why they bully in the first place, to feel better and forget how low their own life is. If you know that, you can use it against em to make them more pathetic, freak out and lose control over themselves and the situation. I'm telling this because many online people feel low sometimes, like having no friends and the feeling when you think no one likes and or everyone hates you, similar to Amanda's case, to know that you only need a little, a little more knowledge to understand that you have no reason to feel like that, there is no such thing as depression, just open your eyes and start to live your life the way you are supposed to. No pill in the world will make you feel better if you cannot make up your mind yourself. Do not depend on what other people think about you, or how they present themselves to you, you just need your own mind and open it, then no problem in the world can hold you down from success.

You can take for example few celebs that got their tapes on the net. For example, Severina from Croatia, no one knows if she wanted it to leak or not, it seemed like it was really a private video or it was just to make us feel that way but either way, after leaking, the porn video really could ruin her life, yet it didn't. It just made her boost the fame and she knew how to deal with it in her favor. First couple of months she received so much cyber, TV and other bullying all over the country and the region, it was the main news everywhere in balkan because she was famous and hot, and a good singer, but at the end, she still appears on the stage like everywhere and is the female icon of croatia and maybe even wider, her career just got leveled up lol. People that bullied her for the sex tape, got nothing from it, she just got more powerful because she used her mind to manipulate with others that thought they were harming her but in fact she used em like stairs to climb higher. Now she is like "so what, im still the baws and the only thing you can do is watch me and desire" lol

Rest in peace Amanda, I hope the Lord will forgive you your suicide and let you enjoy the Paradise.

How would she ignore them when they managed to stalk her and find her everywhere she moved tho

this is really too bad. this particular situation shows a worst case scenario in which an inexperienced teenager went somewere she shouldnt have, and did things she shoudnt have. both sides to this are in the wrong. there is no right in this situation. yes bullying is bad, but people also need to learn how to deal with people better. alot of people hide behind the safety of there computers and fire shots that can do real damage, but only if the people getting shot at let it. its honestly too bad we have such a weak younger generation that this happens. it just shows that you cant let things get to you. if they do you need to find it in yourself to get stronger and overcome it. giving up in any situation is not the answer, neither is going to drugs and alcohol. the fact that people never learn from past generations is why we are doomed to failure like this. bullying will only go away when the victims step up and push forward regardless of what is thrown in there way.

pure wiN wrote:

Amy Cool wrote:

Today, the only way to fight these things is knowledge. So much power in it, but not many people realize it. If Amanda had the chance to discover the potential in knowledge to understand few things about life and the truth about people who bullied her, this would not happen. Yet again, we can't know what was the best path for her. To fight these sorts of people and people in general, you need to have knowledge, the power to control yourself and with that, the people around you as well. She could of just ignored them, live her life and be good at it. It would just make the ones that bully others, useless noobs with no life, that look at her and see their own failures when they compare themselves with her. That's why they bully in the first place, to feel better and forget how low their own life is. If you know that, you can use it against em to make them more pathetic, freak out and lose control over themselves and the situation. I'm telling this because many online people feel low sometimes, like having no friends and the feeling when you think no one likes and or everyone hates you, similar to Amanda's case, to know that you only need a little, a little more knowledge to understand that you have no reason to feel like that, there is no such thing as depression, just open your eyes and start to live your life the way you are supposed to. No pill in the world will make you feel better if you cannot make up your mind yourself. Do not depend on what other people think about you, or how they present themselves to you, you just need your own mind and open it, then no problem in the world can hold you down from success.

You can take for example few celebs that got their tapes on the net. For example, Severina from Croatia, no one knows if she wanted it to leak or not, it seemed like it was really a private video or it was just to make us feel that way but either way, after leaking, the porn video really could ruin her life, yet it didn't. It just made her boost the fame and she knew how to deal with it in her favor. First couple of months she received so much cyber, TV and other bullying all over the country and the region, it was the main news everywhere in balkan because she was famous and hot, and a good singer, but at the end, she still appears on the stage like everywhere and is the female icon of croatia and maybe even wider, her career just got leveled up lol. People that bullied her for the sex tape, got nothing from it, she just got more powerful because she used her mind to manipulate with others that thought they were harming her but in fact she used em like stairs to climb higher. Now she is like "so what, im still the baws and the only thing you can do is watch me and desire" lol

Rest in peace Amanda, I hope the Lord will forgive you your suicide and let you enjoy the Paradise.

How would she ignore them when they managed to stalk her and find her everywhere she moved tho

If she wasn't doing stupid sh$t on facebook like showing her boobs they wouldn't have even been bothering her. Not that I'm blaming her but still this is why kids shouldn't be allowed on facebook

the main reasons for bullying is that there are people who are willing to let themselves be victimized. people need to see everything this girl did wrong, learn from it, and dont make the same mistakes

LethalAfterZ wrote:

pure wiN wrote:

Amy Cool wrote:

Today, the only way to fight these things is knowledge. So much power in it, but not many people realize it. If Amanda had the chance to discover the potential in knowledge to understand few things about life and the truth about people who bullied her, this would not happen. Yet again, we can't know what was the best path for her. To fight these sorts of people and people in general, you need to have knowledge, the power to control yourself and with that, the people around you as well. She could of just ignored them, live her life and be good at it. It would just make the ones that bully others, useless noobs with no life, that look at her and see their own failures when they compare themselves with her. That's why they bully in the first place, to feel better and forget how low their own life is. If you know that, you can use it against em to make them more pathetic, freak out and lose control over themselves and the situation. I'm telling this because many online people feel low sometimes, like having no friends and the feeling when you think no one likes and or everyone hates you, similar to Amanda's case, to know that you only need a little, a little more knowledge to understand that you have no reason to feel like that, there is no such thing as depression, just open your eyes and start to live your life the way you are supposed to. No pill in the world will make you feel better if you cannot make up your mind yourself. Do not depend on what other people think about you, or how they present themselves to you, you just need your own mind and open it, then no problem in the world can hold you down from success.

You can take for example few celebs that got their tapes on the net. For example, Severina from Croatia, no one knows if she wanted it to leak or not, it seemed like it was really a private video or it was just to make us feel that way but either way, after leaking, the porn video really could ruin her life, yet it didn't. It just made her boost the fame and she knew how to deal with it in her favor. First couple of months she received so much cyber, TV and other bullying all over the country and the region, it was the main news everywhere in balkan because she was famous and hot, and a good singer, but at the end, she still appears on the stage like everywhere and is the female icon of croatia and maybe even wider, her career just got leveled up lol. People that bullied her for the sex tape, got nothing from it, she just got more powerful because she used her mind to manipulate with others that thought they were harming her but in fact she used em like stairs to climb higher. Now she is like "so what, im still the baws and the only thing you can do is watch me and desire" lol

Rest in peace Amanda, I hope the Lord will forgive you your suicide and let you enjoy the Paradise.

How would she ignore them when they managed to stalk her and find her everywhere she moved tho

If she wasn't doing stupid sh$t on facebook like showing her boobs they wouldn't have even been bothering her. Not that I'm blaming her but still this is why kids shouldn't be allowed on facebook

Everyone makes mistakes.

pure wiN wrote:

Everyone makes mistakes.

Go back to the whole knowledge thing. "Some people learn from their mistakes. Smart people learn from other people's mistakes." Isn't it relatively obvious that showing your private parts on facebook is not going to end well? If people thin ahead they'll know whether they're doing the right thing. And what's more, peer pressure is easier to ignore on the internet. Definite fact, because they're unlikely to see you in real life and you can just opt to never see them again.

I agree with jj, the story is sad, but there were a lot of different routes she could've taken.
Still, r.I.p. Hopefully karma comes around and smacks the bullies in the face.

N, its useless to tell now what she could do, what is done can't be changed, she committed suicide already. But, how you can ignore bullying when you are stalked in real life too, simply same way you ignore online ones. If they saw she is proud of it, they wouldn't have motivation to continue. Its hard to understand but that's how society functions. Every bully needs a victim which cares about what others say to her, but who are they to judge her? Some pathetic bastards obviously. If she was thinking in that way, she could of avoid suicide just by knowing that they are so many levels under her. She wouldn't feel so low and would not want to stop her life. Stopping your own life is not an option for whateverthereasonis. Even if it looks like she did the right thing here, she didn't. She had choices but people just don't see em at the moment. When you think about it, she could learn from her mistake when she showed herself in fb. When moved away, she should of turn off her facebook and continue to live her life. There are many people who showed themselves, were bullied but they didn't care for it, they were just proud of what they were doing and so the bastards had nothing to fight them. For example I, whenever I make any mistake and got teased for it, I always try to defend myself in a way to show them I don't care and tease them instead. It always works no matter how hard they try, they got nothing against me.

I feel sad for her but what can we do, she is gone and at least I hope her sacrifice will be a lesson to many because that's the only positive thing we can take from her suicide. :/

jjh927 wrote:

pure wiN wrote:

Everyone makes mistakes.

Go back to the whole knowledge thing. "Some people learn from their mistakes. Smart people learn from other people's mistakes." Isn't it relatively obvious that showing your private parts on facebook is not going to end well? If people thin ahead they'll know whether they're doing the right thing. And what's more, peer pressure is easier to ignore on the internet. Definite fact, because they're unlikely to see you in real life and you can just opt to never see them again.

Doesnt look like you read my great wall of text or watched her video o.O. They were bullying her irl too.

pure wiN wrote:

jjh927 wrote:

pure wiN wrote:

Everyone makes mistakes.

Go back to the whole knowledge thing. "Some people learn from their mistakes. Smart people learn from other people's mistakes." Isn't it relatively obvious that showing your private parts on facebook is not going to end well? If people thin ahead they'll know whether they're doing the right thing. And what's more, peer pressure is easier to ignore on the internet. Definite fact, because they're unlikely to see you in real life and you can just opt to never see them again.

Doesnt look like you read my great wall of text or watched her video o.O. They were bullying her irl too.

I read your wall of text. There are people you can talk to when others start saying you should die and when people beat you up. Before someone even thinks about suicide in this manner they should contact the police. People can still make friends; it doesn't matter how many stupid, ignorant low-lifes there are in the world, there are always intelligent thoughtful ones for people to make friends with. Stick around and you're quite likely to be good in life; people bully you because you are better than them, and they just want to feel good. Sometimes even the nasty ones have a slight bit of good; when they get put under pressure they don't want to bear they are quite happy to put it on to the ones that can; the abled people more intelligent than them. That's where you prove yourself. You do not prove yourself by dying. Dying for a cause like this leads to martyrdom. Living and fighting through it, encouraging others to do the same, and preventing the problem that was driving you insane; that is called heroism. Martyrs are remembered for a short time after their death and their cause spikes up a little. Heroes are remembered not only throughout their lifetime but for much longer than that due to the major impact they have caused to modern lifestyle. Living through something makes the place better, dying does not; it just gets rid of it for you.