Cyber-bullying drives teenage girl to suicide

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Bullied Teen Leaves Behind Chilling Video - Yahoo! News
abc_bullied3_amanda_todd_jt_121012_wmain.jpg


A teenager posted a heartbreaking video on YouTube chronicling years of bullying in school and online, cutting and humiliation up until she died this week. Amanda Todd, 15, posted the video called "My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm" on Sept. 7 and was found dead in her home town of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just over a month later.

"Hello, I've decided to tell you about my never ending story," the black and white video begins. Todd can only be seen from her nose down for most of the video, occasionally moving around so that her face is visible. She silently tells her story through a series of white cards with black marker writing on them.

She describes using webcam chats to meet and talk to new people online as a seventh grade student. She said that people told her she was "stunning, beautiful, perfect" and a man pressured her to flash her chest. One year later, she did.


Todd received a Facebook message from a man she did not know saying that if she did not "put on a show" for him, he would send the photo of her chest to everyone. Over Christmas break, Todd said police came to her house at 4 a.m. to tell her that the photo had been sent to everyone.


"I then got really sick and got anxiety, major depression and panic disorders," she wrote. "I then moved and got into drugs and alcohol."


A year after moving, Todd said things were going better until the man on Facebook came back and used the photo of her chest as his profile picture. Todd said she "cried every night, lost all my friends and respect people had for me again."


"I can never get that photo back," she wrote. "It's out there forever."


She described being called names, eating lunch alone and resorting to cutting herself. She also told the story of an incident where she made a "huge mistake" and "hooked up" with a boy at her school who had a girlfriend, but who she believed really liked her.


A week later, she said she received a text message telling her to get out of school and then a group of students, led by the boy's girlfriend, surrounded her at school and said, "Look around, nobody likes you."


"A guy then yelled, 'Just punch her already,' so [the girlfriend] did," Todd wrote. "She threw me to the ground and punched me several times. Kids filmed it. I was all alone and left on the ground."


Todd said she "wanted to die so bad" when her dad found her in a ditch. She drank bleach when she went home and had to be rushed to the hospital to have her stomach pumped, she said.


"After I got home, all I saw was on Facebook--'She deserved it. Did you wash the mud out of your hair? I hope she's dead,'" she wrote.


Todd moved to another school in another city, but said the torture followed her through Facebook. Students posted photos of ditches and suggested she try another bleach.


"Every day, I think, why am I still here?" she asked towards the end of the video. "I'm stuck. What's left of me now? Nothing stops. I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd."


Authorities were called to a residence in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just before 6 p.m. on Oct. 10 to investigate the sudden death of the tormented teenager.


While authorities have not officially called the death a suicide, Cpl. Jamie Chung of the Coquitlam Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement, "At this time it has been determined that the teen's death was not suspicious in nature and that foul play was not a factor."


The coroner is investigating the death, police said.


Teenager Documents Bullying and Abuse Before Her Death


Todd said in her video that she did not want to press charges against the girl who beat her up because she ?wanted to move on? when she moved to another city and school.

Police did not immediately respond to ABCNews.com's question whether there was a probe into the man who used Todd's Facebook photo in an effort to exploit her and then made it public.


Todd's family has declined to speak, but Cheryl Quinton, spokeswoman for the Coquitlam School District, told ABCNews.com, "The family was wanting to pass along that several supports were in place for their daughter on the school, home and community levels. There was a lot of intervention and a lot of support. I know that is the message that they want to convey."


Todd was in the tenth grade at the Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education School when she died. School officials would not release the name of her previous school.

Quinton said the death has been "very devastating" to the small school where resources are being provided to students in regards to suicide prevention and bullying.

"We typically, as a school district, don't talk about such deaths but with the family's endorsement we did choose to do so because it is important to point out the dangers associated with social media and cyber-bullying," Quinton said.

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The comments are pretty fucked up on both the youtube channels and the article page, so be warned. Complete an utter troll haven. Unsurprisingly, many American posters are also unaware British Columbia is in Canada. And a lot of the video responses remind me of the infamous "Leave Britney Alone" video actually.

Either way, this is a pretty humongous story right now that's getting a ton of online attention. Sad to hear about the girl, but her parents clearly failed her about as pathetically as they possibly could have, which is no doubt why neither of them have commented publicly on the incident. A lot of people are pointing their fingers at social networking as the reason, but that's something she easily could have done without if the parents would have stepped in.

I don't agree that is was the girl's fault and her's alone at all. Every kid does stupid shit when they're that age, and I'm sure if she would have known the guy on webcam was going to track her down a year later and blackmail her, she wouldn't have done it. 99% of anyone you "meet" online have the strong probability of being complete creeps anyways and it's too bad she had to learn that in the absolute worst possible way.

I'm sure many people here will even say they don't feel bad for the girl, which is understandable. The only issue I have with this story are the creeps in her school that followed her all over the internet even after she moved, tagged her in the bleach/ditch photos and persisted on taking the time to make her life hell. That's really the bigger story that's not getting covered enough. The internet isn't to blame, it's the absence of moderation on it. I think it's great for users to have free speech and all, but when shit like this starts becoming a reoccurring problem because that freedom is abused to the worst imaginable extent, those types of freedoms should be reexamined.

This is why I laugh my ass off when politicians accuse piracy of being the biggest issue with the internet. Piracy is a completely benign issue that only affects rich assholes concerned with losing a few bucks. But when a few mentally-unstable kids kill themselves because they're being bullied by people in several countries around the world, it doesn't cost them anything.
 

Chris

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Heard about this yesterday and read into it a lot. I've always been the one to say that bullying is a problem that we just can't stop because of how widespread it is and how it's always been around, but this shit is not bullying, the stuff those kids did took it to a whole other level, fucking ridiculous.
 

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I hate that teens always see this as the way out but obviously this wouldn't have happened if her parents actually did parenting which too many of them don't and shit like this happens. This is why I find trolling and fucking with people just because it's the internet totally ignorant because you never know what people are going through.
 

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Yeah it's pretty sick and twisted shit. I mean if that girl thought her life was bad, she should have wondered how fucked up those other kids must have had it to have that much hate inside them and plenty of spare time to stalk and torment her.
 

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This is a very sad story which does really show how negative the Internet can be. There is very little that can be done in terms of restricting the content on the Internet because if there is some sad person intent on posting offensive messages towards a person or in general they can do so. Social networking has a huge influence and is the main way that bullies communicate with their victims. I haven't heard a great deal about this story but from reading the Yahoo report the parents or family members have stated that the young girl was receiving help for a number of issues. I don't think the parents can be blamed. They could only do their best, we don't know the full facts of the story as well.

Not only can this be a lesson to everyone around the world but it can also be a lesson to people on this forum who insult other members and use offensive language during debates but also during our daily lives. You don't know what people have been through during their day and its generally not nice.
 

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I don't really use Facebook much anymore but isn't there a privacy feature where only your friends can tag you or see your profile and you can even hide your friends list. I don't see how they were able to continue contacting her. Suicide is a very touchy subject. My initial reaction would be she took the easy way out. It's kind of selfish to leave your family feeling like shit and they'll always have that over their head. We don't know how well the family treated her but considering they moved a lot to get her away from them I'd say they're not horrible parents as some are suggesting. But wanting a girl who is clearly wanting to end her life to stay alive because you want her to is selfish also. Although I do feel for the girl and her family, I'd be lying if I said part of me didn't think she's stupid for letting it get this bad.
 

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Apparently, there was a party thrown celebrating her death up in Canada, I'm guessing in one of the towns she used to live in. Just fucking pathetic.
 

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I'm in no way advocating bullying, but there should be an internet licence to keep thin-skinned people off the web, it's just not safe for weak-willed children.
 

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Apparently, there was a party thrown celebrating her death up in Canada, I'm guessing in one of the towns she used to live in. Just fucking pathetic.

Yup, they certainly aren't doing Canada proud right now. Fucking disgusting really. Honestly makes me hate humanity for all the bullshit it can cause. The dude tracked her down twice, fucking insane.
 

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I feel no sympathy. None at all. I mean not to be mean but kids these days are literally fuckin pussies. They can't take anything... everything is considered bullying these days and all they see... is oh nobody likes me, I'm so alone so I have to kill myself. Fuckin pussies really... it pisses me off. Its the internet. People are gonna talk shit, they gonna say shit... if you can't handle it... get your soft ass off the computer and go outside. Watch tv, play video games. If people are being so mean on facebook... block their ass, deactivate your facebook.

Man alive... its pathetic the things these kids commit suicide over these days. Cyber bullying? How to avoid cyber bullying? unplug the fucking computer. Avoid the social media sites if you have to have internet. I mean yeah consider me cold... but I don't care. I'm sick of shit like this. I mean hell we were bullyed back in the day and what we do? We fought back. these pussies clam up and get all depressed and kill themselves. None of them have a backbone anymore and its because of all of this fucking positive action and positive self esteem bullshit. Don't say anything that can damage a self esteem.

I mean hell we got fucking rid of letter grades in elementary school down here. Now everyone gets a 1-3. Because F's are damaging to self esteems. Fuckin idiots. Aight I'ma stop before I go on a fuckin tirade. But seriously... yeah its fucked up that she killed herself over it... but... damn... people can't take shit anymore. Pussies.
 

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I feel no sympathy. None at all. I mean not to be mean but kids these days are literally fuckin pussies. They can't take anything... everything is considered bullying these days and all they see... is oh nobody likes me, I'm so alone so I have to kill myself. Fuckin pussies really... it pisses me off. Its the internet. People are gonna talk shit, they gonna say shit... if you can't handle it... get your soft ass off the computer and go outside. Watch tv, play video games. If people are being so mean on facebook... block their ass, deactivate your facebook.

Man alive... its pathetic the things these kids commit suicide over these days. Cyber bullying? How to avoid cyber bullying? unplug the fucking computer. Avoid the social media sites if you have to have internet. I mean yeah consider me cold... but I don't care. I'm sick of shit like this. I mean hell we were bullyed back in the day and what we do? We fought back. these pussies clam up and get all depressed and kill themselves. None of them have a backbone anymore and its because of all of this fucking positive action and positive self esteem bullshit. Don't say anything that can damage a self esteem.

I mean hell we got fucking rid of letter grades in elementary school down here. Now everyone gets a 1-3. Because F's are damaging to self esteems. Fuckin idiots. Aight I'ma stop before I go on a fuckin tirade. But seriously... yeah its fucked up that she killed herself over it... but... damn... people can't take shit anymore. Pussies.
There is a difference from the typical internet negativity and situations like this where people made her life a living hell off the internet to the point where she couldn't even go to school and then stalked the girl on the internet saying she hopes she kills herself. That shit is sick and there is no excuse for it. This goes above and beyond normal bullying.
 

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Welcome to social media though. You put your info out there, they will come for you. Plain and simple. It's still disgusting, but it's something that won't be helped really.
 

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I still can't find any sympathy in me for her or for the situation. Its bad... but... eh.
 

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Like I said before, this wasn't regular bullying as in kids making fun of the girl. All in all it was her fault though because of that one picture she sent.
 

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Apparently, there was a party thrown celebrating her death up in Canada, I'm guessing in one of the towns she used to live in. Just fucking pathetic.

That is absolutely pathetic.

This sort of situation is what becomes of our limp wristed society. Perverts like the dude who blackmailed her are free to be perverts, the kids who tormented her have no respect for anyone else, there's always been bullying and teasing but this level of bullying to the point where they celebrate her death that's just inhumane, those little shits biggest punishment in life has been to have their PS3 taken off them for 5 minutes no wonder they have no respect. And the girl herself she's been coddled her entire life and has thin skin everything got to her, she should have just talked to her parents or somebody, anybody. Kids these days, just everything said gets to them.