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In September this year, a Canadian teenager called Amanda Todd posted a video on YouTube describing how she had been the victim of bullying.
15-year-old Amanda, from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, described – with the aid of a series of flashcards – the horrific treatment she had received at the hands of bullies in her video entitled “My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self harm”.
Amanda was bullied viciously on Facebook where her schoolmates were invited to join a page which included topless photographs of her, causing Amanda to suffer from anxiety and depression.
Despite her family moving house and her changing schools, the bullying continued and Amanda fell into drug-taking and alcohol.
After a violent encounter with another girl, Amanda drank bleach and attempted to kill herself.
"It killed me inside and I thought I actually was going to die."
Amanda admitted in the video that she had deliberately cut herself, and ends the movie by holding a card which reads:
"I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd."
Here is a copy of Amanda’s video. It makes for harrowing viewing:
On 10 October 2012, Amanda Todd committed suicide. It was just one week before her 16th birthday.
Amanda’s tragic death has stirred a national debate about cyberbullying, but the sad story has now developed a new twist.
People associating themselves with the Anonymous hacktivist group have published a video and documents, naming the person that they believe to have allegedly relentlessly harrassed Amanda Todd, and distributed topless photographs of the young teen.
We aren’t going to publish the name of the person “doxed” by Anonymous here. We have no way of telling if he really is connected with Amanda Todd or not.
But even if he was, it should be clear to everyone that the most appropriate course of action is to pass any pertinent information onto the police – not to engage in internet vigilante revenge.
The death of Amanda Todd should be shocking to everyone. It certainly makes me think twice about letting a child of mine have a Facebook account, or use a webcam unsupervised, because of the horrible mess they could end up in.
But let’s make sure that none of us become internet bullies ourselves in our desire for justice after a young woman’s death.
There’s an opportunity for Amanda’s life to mean something to far more people than those she ever met, in countries around the globe.
If we want Amanda’s life and legacy to make any difference to the world, we all need to take onboard the strong message about the importance of treating others with respect online.
I can imagine how publishing an alleged tormentor’s name, address and employment history online could lead to the same kind of ugly online persecution that Amanda Todd had to face.
Amanda Todd did something brave. She made a video about her horrible situation and it was watched around the world.
It’s not brave to hide behind an anonymous mask and publish details of the man you blame for Amanda’s depression and ultimate suicide. Take that info to the cops instead.
What happened to Amanda was horrible and just plain nasty. However, I think everyone referring to it as bullying is actually doing an injustice. What I see here goes way beyond bullying into outright criminal activities. The behavior demonstrated here by the antagonists brings to light a gap in the criminal code regarding harassment. We need better definitions for when bullying turns into criminal harassment.
I don't believe we need to involve police with bullying, most bullies are just tiny insecure people trying to bloat their ego at the expense of someone else – you don't talk with them, you just challenge them and fight them hard! That's how I was taught to deal with bullies and it worked, you win some, you loose some, but the bully eventually gets the message that easier prey is had elsewhere and moves on. That worked for me every single time.
But criminal harassment is way beyond bullying and extends into defamation of character, mental anguish, etc., and it is obviously not properly defined in the criminal code but should be, with inclusions to account for social media which plays a much larger role in everyone's lives than it did back when the current code was written. Amanda might still be alive today had she herself understood better the distinction between bullying and criminal activities.
All things in this case considered, why were the police not involved earlier? At a minimum we have criminal distribution of pictures of an under-age girl? That alone should net people registration on the perverts list and several years in prison?
Not everyone can protect themselves as you described. We are not all the same strength, I am sure you realize that. I agee with the idea of maximum prosecution of these perverts. Not sure what I can do from Cali, but if I can help, please let me know. Thanks,
Dave
I agree. She was bullied horribly, but the bullying was caused by a criminal activity. This man should be exposed, arrested, jailed and labeled as what he is, a child pornographer.
Because his criminal act and his extortion and retaliation against her caused the bullying that caused her death, he should be charged with manslaughter or negligent homicide.
Why manslaughter of negligent homicide? Premeditation = 1st degree murder. And since he is likely in the US while Amanda was Canadian, that should make it a Federal crime, which puts the death penalty on the table.
I agree with every single thing, but all people are different when it comes to handling situations of being bullied. Right here goes to show how freakin' useless the justice system really is. You would think that cops would have gotten involved A LOT sooner and made sure whomever it was that was sending her breasts to the entire world, would have went to jail. He set her up and ruined her life and did it intentionally. He brought this on a little 15 year old girl. She was still a baby. I am so disgusted with this story. She was trying to seek help for gods sake and no one helped her. The teachers and hell even the principal knew everything that was going on and NOTHING was done. This poor girl ended her life due to some low-life piece of garbage who just wanted to get his wanker wet. It's appalling. He should be sitting his ass in jail. Period.
I stood up to bullies once. Got caustic chemicals sprayed in my eye and EVERYONE treated it as nothing like you are really. It's good you defended yourself BUT someone else took the brunt. That bully was harder on their NEW victim. Bullying IS criminal harassment. Bullying IS defamation of character (OMG! Did you hear about X. She's dating the principal!..sound familiar?), It IS Mental anguish ("Keep my head down…keep my head down…stay quiet…maybe they won't notice me today. Please god, just let me go home."), and even Physical harm (industrial strength cleaner from the janitor's cart sprayed directly into my eye). Bullying is NOT minor, and it's devastating to the victim.
After literally YEARS of being attacking physically and mentally, being threatened by students AND staff (The Vice principal that year threatened to expel me if I came to the school for help again.) Being isolated from being able to tell my parents to keep the bullying from getting worse because it was already violent (And to keep from being expelled, after all my mom would have hit the roof on the VP had I told her what was going on, but I was 12, and so viciously bullied that I was terrified to tell her that I was STILL being bullied). I snapped and attacked -one- of my bullies. He'd drawn blood with his actions. It also turned out to be a trap he drew blood to lure me out of the teacher's sight. I spent hours in a hospital with them desperately trying to save my eye because the school wouldn't cooperate with them. The only punishment given to the bully? he couldn't attend the 'graduation ceremony' oh…boo…hoo.
Bullying IS criminal and should not be treated lightly. I've had chemicals sprayed in my eyes. my wrist nearly severed (The PE locker room door at my Jr. High was a thick metal slab and a couple of bullies yanked on the door when I went to keep it from closing. Had another student not stepped up and grabbed the door to stop it from shutting I'd have lost my hand at the wrist, I've had a girl smash my head against a mental pole, another bash my head against a metal paper towel dispenser repeatedly. I've have rumors, gossip, people laughing at me, people screaming at me, people throwing things at me. I've had people threaten me, and remind me that if I tell anyone, that it would be even worse.
Bullying survivors aren't given enough credit for being able to take that much pain and suffering all while the world tells them "It's nothing major…it's just bullying…don't be so over dramatic…-It's just bullying-…"
What you describe as criminal activities -is- bullying at it's worst. It's an injustice to not press upon society just how dangerous bullying can really be.
Born in 1980 but 30 years old? They fail at math…
did you watch the video?
It says it happened over the span off 2 years for her….so 2010, and what is 2010 – 1980.
Is that really the message you want to take away from this? Pay attention to things before you try and fault it.
well i would like to see the very man appalligise his actions to the family , ask why and what drives a person to hurt the innocent … get the man help so he doesn't live his life hurting
Get a grip Rick !!! This coward needs to pay for his crimes,He prayed on a defenseless Little girl,he is the lowest, of the low !!! I have no mercy for his kind.
how does an anonymous hacking group which is being sought by all manner of law enforcement agencies and spook shacks present this material in a way that law enforcement could or would use it? the authorities are more interested in busting anonymous than in tracking down amanda todd's tormentor(s)! witness: if anonymous could do it, the authorities could–but didn't. the "authorities" are way more about suppressing civil rights, locking the internet down against "bad behavior" that threatens them than they will ever give a damn about a 15 year old cyber-victim…
All they'd have to do is not mention "Anonymous". A random person looking to do something good can submit info to the police, it happened before Anonymous. It's not like the police would assume because s/he had a computer and some hacking skills that they must be undeniably connected to the group. They don't all tattoo their faces so they can be identified as members, if s/he didn't mention it the'd just be a concerned citizen with a lead.
But you need to prove to the cops that your information is legit. To do that, you'd have to show them how you obtained the information, and that would be self-incriminating.
There's that one part of me, that is glad Anon did this. Police can only do so much and if the guy did and doesn't cop to it he walks free to do it again. It can also send a message to those who would want to cyber bully in the future: "be a douche and make someone kill themselves and you'll be next." Having said that, having posted his name, this guy no matter how twisted he is, is now open to "justice of the mob" which is not always a good thing.
The cops should be able to get him for distributing child pornography. I hope someone in her area gives this to the cops to check out.
Why does Facebook allow this to happen in the first place. They need to have a system in place to shut down cyber bullying as soon as it is spotted. If your to big to look out for the boy or girl that is being mistreated then have a real problem. I don't know how you sleep at night.
Really? And how would you define bullying? I'm disagreeing with you here; is that "bullying?" Should Facebook be censoring people because one or two people find something to be "bullying?" What about 100 or 200? 1000 or 2000? If 100,000 people considered a post "bullying," that would STILL be less than ONE TENTH OF ONE PERCENT of Facebook users.
We need to educate people, not censor them. We need to educate the potential bullies. But more importantly, we need to educate kids on how to let what bullies say just slide off. Nothing upsets the bullies more than you not getting upset by them.
And what if the guy is innocent? Would you still be glad these cowards did this?
If the man is innocent, he will surely find a way to prove it, and these "coward", as you call them, will have to apologize, or else people will see Anonymous as being a bad/evil group …
By cowards, do you mean the group that acquired evidence of pedophilia which led to the conviction of a sexual predator? Or the group that was able to get information on the football players who raped a 16 year old girl?
Maybe your talking about the group that fights for your right to say and search for whatever you want on the internet without government censorship.
People like to say that those who wear masks are cowards…. Special ops, Navy Seals, Army Rangers…. all wear masks. They do it to protect their identity so that they can continue their fight for justice.
All forms of bullying must be stopped. Cyber-bullying being one of the most insidious, due to the wide spread reach of the 'net. I was just on a page yesterday, where people were making rude comments about this same girl. I will not repeat those horrid comments here.
I feel for her family and for every family that has to struggle through an ordeal like it. Be a part of the solution, not part of the problem! Report online hate speech and bullying!
Aged 30? Unless it was one of her teachers, does that even make sense?
It makes no sense in this story. You would have to go back and read about how the whole mess unfolded. It was tragic!
There's an article I read, I think on huffpo, it was some guy on a video chat that she flashed. He then blackmailed her with the pictures, and released them anyway.
F**k him!! why shoud he be protected she wasn't
Because what if they're wrong? If it isn't him, an innocent man will be branded and it could go on for years. She didn't deserve what happened to her, we need to be sure we've got the right guy. We haven't verified anything, at this point he could have been randomly chosen and we'd have no way of knowing otherwise. Yes, the culprit should be punished, but let's not take someone we know nothing about's word for it.
I'm with you Me….He should have no mercy !!!
I'm all for it. The police had the chance to do their jobs, and they failed in a big way. Let him feel the full brunt of internet shaming since he was so eager to give it to her, just so he could jerk off. Payment in full.
CatM,
What makes you think he's capable of any remorse or shame. You or I might be but for a guy who relentlessly victimizes someone like this, chances are he just misses the action and moves on to someone else to do the same thing.
I know it sounds cold, but the best message to send is: 'FOR CHRIST SAKE, GET A DAMN LIFE!!!'.
Of course stuff like this is inevitable when social networking and 'celebrity culture' turns people into complete attention-seeking narcissists, or obsessives who's only aim in life is to ruin others. And it's all done behind the safety of our keyboards – nothing personal, no comeback, no consequences. No need to put effort into relationships that matter. What cultivated this ugly situation?
It's the mob, i.e. society, that allowed the conditions to exist in the first place. We just love it when mainstream media turns complete nonentities into 'celebrities', only to destroy their reputations, and sometimes their lives, months down the line. We, as a society, sanctioned exactly the same behaviour that caused that girl to do herself.
What else could we expect?
I say if its really him, I hope he IS bullied.
Actually, no, the source is not reliable at all. It is the same anonymous account that in the past dennounced Todd's case as a "media scheme".
http://www.youtube.com/user/anonymous204012
I expect they got the right person. Things I have seen them do on 4chan in the past, which is probably the children’s wing of anonymous, have been pretty careful like comparing locations of moles on two people who look identical to be sure they are.
If they haven’t got the right person then I feel sorry for the guy.
But if they have then maybe he’d like to throw himself on the mercy of the police. He hounded a young girl to death. So that would make him a murderer as surely as if he had chased her off a cliff. He’s also a child abuser and a child pornographer.
How you kill someone with deliberation should not affect your legal standing. If that example was set for the other bullies then maybe they’d think twice.
I live in Canada, and am disgusted by the actions of the ones who bullied Amanda to death. The police have received over 400 tips, and are following them up, as they consider it was a crime. Our Parliament is talking about what can be done to try to stop bullying. Whether they actually do something, I don't know, but something has to be done. Too many children have been bullied until they commit suicide….
Yup GREAT CANADIAN LAW…
Kill someone get a 7 yesr sentance, out in 5!
Again, Candaina law is a JOKE…. Drop the gloves and beat the creeper!
I agree 100%.Even though they put this girl through pure hell. Law enforcement needs this information and they should be dealt with legally!!
Laws enforcement is A JOKE IN CANADA… Only 1 way to handle this….
Drop the gloves and beat the shit outta this guy, I mean even by random chance the useless police do something, he will get smashed everytime he is outta his PC cell to eat or exercise…
So really its a win/win!
I am about 3 and a half mins from the sapperton addy that annonymous gave hmmmmm
I am open for having the guy that is guilty bullied and experience things for what they are.
My fear is that though we can’t really trust any Guy Fawkes’ mask claiming to be an anonymous member to tell us who is guilty of anything. What if the man reported is innocent and has a family? Another whole innocent life completely ruined.
But if he is really the guilty one, he deserves what is coming.
For once, Anonymous does something meaningful.
Everything they do is absolutely meaningful
The HUGE question, can we stop this from happening again? If so, how?
i got facebook to take down the page the guy made with her nude on it and i reported it to the fbi for child pornography
Born 1980, aged 30 … lost 2 years somewhere. That is the level of care that gets evidence dismissed in courts. The correct reaction to online harassment is not online harassment.
But the correct action to murder is execution? I agree that an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind, But if Anonymous was able to get this information by sitting behind a computer, Why couldn't law enforcement do the same thing?
Because they don't care. Its a closed case. Just like when a 15 year old girl gets raped by several older football players, the local police and coach will lie and fudge evidence in order to protect the "star players".
P.s. Anonymous released information to police about that case also…. again, why should Anonymous have to do the work that the police don't want to do?
What this guy did sounds to me like it was more along the lines of "sextortion" than bullying.
I'm not real sure that Anonymous actually got the right guy.
Have the authorities gone through Amanda's computer to see if the guy is listed as one of her contacts?Did she delete him as a contact ? If she did,how did he continue to get her pictures?
"We aren't going to publish the name of the person "doxed" by Anonymous here. "
From your screenshot alone I found the dox within 30 seconds on google…
If he is 30 / 32 years old and she was 15, is this not grooming?
If it is PROVEN this is the guy who pressured a then, 12 year old Amanda Todd,
1 to show her breasts on a webcam, and if he is the one
2 who recorded the camming and made screen shots and if he is the one
3 who cyberstalked her from school to school, threatening to expose her pictures to her schoolmates if,
4 she didn't show him more…
Then, Yes, he should get every kind of justice that is coming to him. There is also jailhouse justice he could have awaiting him IF he is the one. I think cyberbullying will be the least of his problems then =]
Chris W,
A Canadian who has reported several websites with nasty pictures of a little girl who lost her battle with depression. Rest in Peace Amanda
Yeah you can Google this in a few seconds.
Looks fake to me – the word Identity is spelled "Identiy" in the configuration panel that is supposedly the message source. Someone doctored this image. I sure wouldn't trust this source!
She could have just deleted her Facebook account and ignore the bullying online. In my day getting rid of bullies wasn't that easy. They were physically in your face, NOT your Facebook.
I watched her video when a friend posted it on twitter, I was unaware as I watched that she had already commited suicide. It was heartbreaking to watch even before i found out she was dead and it has affected me deeply. I’ve brushed closely with death through attempted suicide and lost my partner through suicide so my heart goes out to Amanda, her family and her real friends. I want to see the man that started it all brought to justice properly, not bullied by mob mentality as was done to Amanda. The bullying that followed her for years is sickening, wherever she went she couldn’t leave it behind. But what of those in the schools she attended? Will they face any repercussions? The mob mentality that led to a physical beating and her drinking bleach. The boy she “got with”, did his girlfriend beat him? Did he get mobbed? The bullying was atrocious, physically and mentally. All those involved should be aware that actions have consequences and i sincerely hope they have learned this and will not partake in such behaviour again, but its not a perfect world is it? This world is broken, many will just start a bullying campaign on the next easy victim. A life lost. There are no angels in this world but she did not deserve this
According to her story there was host of people in her face about this.
The perpetrator elicited her classmates into bullying her, and even beat
her. There is more than a handful of people who are responsible for her
death and, therefor, should be punished to the full extent of the law. Accessory
to murder is the first thing that to mind as I viewed her plea for help. Wherever
she went there was no one home and no one to help.
After reading the replies, I have a couple of comments. It must go through the police. How do we know this is even the person that did the crime? It must go through the proper authorities or it means nothing. If the police don't know who 'Anonymous' is there is no connection, but there may be enough information for the police to put together a good enough profile to convince a judge to get a warrant and then maybe a trial and conviction. But illegal tactics as a start will not convince anyone who cares about proper prosecution wouldn't like it if this happened to them (think about it?)
You do wonder why the police doesn't track down whoever put the site up and added the topless picture for child pornography as it was intended to bully or blackmail the person and she was underage. Seems like they use these laws out of context in many situations, but won't use it in a time that will allow the prosecution of a probable sex molester or bully. I realize the pictures themselves are not porn, but the implication is obviously to blackmail or by surreptitiously forcing information out of somebody.
What if the Anonymous people are wrong, as will always be in the minds of clear thinking people, so back to the bottom line is, that it must go to the police. Again, I'd like to ensure that I don't think a nude child is pornography and I don't think they need to be told otherwise, but when it's use to coerces someone to do something, then it's got to be criminal since it's a minor.
I'm also concerned that many people don't understand the court or police processing of crimes and information. It has taken many years in the US to create a protection from the unlawful use of authority by police. This is a protection for the people, unfortunately it's seems to be used too much for the public in releasing many criminals who have a smoking gun in their hands.
Also, if someone reads this could they let me know what 'grooming' is, I'm assuming that it's a British term, and it only brings a couple things in mind, but I don't really know.
Thanks…
Hope I made sense.
Ummm, I just have one question. How was this man able to bully her? Why couldn't she stop using the social networks that we causing her so much pain? There is a deeper question here. Why are we addicted ?
That is the black part of the Internet what makes me sometimes accept some kind of Internet censorship or some keep-an-eye technology. It's not for me, it's all about our teenagers who are impressed by life and are ready to try anything new. Maybe, what I am thinking of this time, is how could a 15-years old girl find drugs?!! that's just a disaster.
I think that twisted guy get arrested and get the longest possible number of years in prison. That's still won't bring that little girl back.
Same kinda things happen in The Netherlands where they call the it Facebook murder. The story is about two girlfriends where the one get bullied via FB. The one payed few euro's to a idiot teenager to kill the other. The court has decided 5 years jail for this girlfriend because she is minor. If this idiot get arrested I wish the Canadian court sentence him/her for live
I dont care what anyone else wants to say…
I would hug Anonymous if I could.
When the system breaks, (as it often does), justice must be done. This little girl had no one on her side. The law dropped the ball. A person is dead.
It is good that someone stepped up to defend this person, though it has come too late.
The person ultimately responsible for this outrage will never meet justice because to cops don’t give a shit.
I believe this girl’s parents, friends and supporters would want her persecutor brought to justice. This will never happen. The person they raised for nearly 15 years is gone from them forever.
You want to talk about vigilante justice? Hell with you. Just wait till its’ your daughter; your son. Then tell us about “vigilantism”. Until then, eat s*** and die.
Go Anon.
RIP Amanda
I was bullied during the times when Facebook didn't exist.I'm glad I am not a teenager in Facebook era,people love to spread malicious rumours (It happened to me in my school) sometimes it go haywire ,out of control and people who really have no idea who is the victim or what they are being accused of,join that bandwagon and start to humiliate them because it's fun and 'everybody' does it.How can you not feel crazy when 20 people say you are stupid and shit,even your head starts to do the same,you can't run away too far because your brain will bully you.
And kids often are too ashamed to tell their parents,why?They feel like it's their fault,they don't want to show them how weak they are,or maybe parents often told them 'it's not that important' when they had problems before ,for parents young people's problems are often downgraded and view as minor ones when in reality they are as much important as your constant stress at work or your boss being unfair with you.
If you survive bullying,it will not stop with your graduation – it's a scar you carry for life
Low self esteem,apathy,addictions,social phobia…
The main problem of cyber bullying is it is really hard to track down we don't know who did it and could take years
Amanda Todd, I read and saw your video. I am personally in my final stages of achieving my Masters degree in Homeland Security, with details upon emergency management and computer forensics at American Public University. I will do my best to find you hurt you. I have children myself and I would never allow them to be hurt by someone online, a cyber-bully/harasser/predator. I wish you the best above, and I hope to be one that can make a difference down below. RIP Amanda.__Sincerely,__Bill Furry
why the stylish black & white? why the "bob dylan" card thing? why the music? this looks all very narcissistic to me… don't get me wrong, it's tragic for sure, but we shouldn't reduce this whole thing to a silly "big bad wolf" and "innocent girlie" theme here… it's way more complex.
There is a horrible misspelling. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking at, but the members of anonymous are intelligent. I doubt this is from them.
Ya ya.. this is all very bad.. i am also currently going through same thing.. i know how i am fighting back.. its all horrible,.. i this situation person cant think.. i know its very easy for others to say "move on".. but no.. we know from inner sole.. what we are going through..
Why is Anonymous getting blamed for the despicable actions of the tormentor.
Anonymous did not use waterboarding or any form of torture to acquire the information they did. You say they should have given it to the police… I say the police should have already had it and done something about it.
Just like when Anon turned info into the police about a pedophile, which led to a conviction… Why are Anonymous having to do the job of the police? And then getting attacked for it?
In the USA, You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a Police Officer than by a terrorist… Yet the government labels Anonymous as "cyber terrorists".
Maybe if the police did their job properly, Anonymous wouldn't have to interject.