The Amanda Todd story has drawn a significant amount of attention to bullying. Definitely a global issue since we learn these behaviours while growing up that carry into our adulthood. It also brings up a newer issue - the permanence of all things online. This is the first generation to grow up in the digital age; where nothing is ever deleted and everything is stored literally forever. The individuals and organizations which keep and store our information, that data, will be the future powers in control of our planet.http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/10/12/amanda-todd-suicide-2012/
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Bullying+Canada+breaking+point+says/7392590/story.html
This is just one example of bullying, I don't mean any disrespect to her or her family and the bully in this case took it way to far. But she willingly opened up to him, showing him her body. On average 3000 people commit suicide A DAY. [1] We can't just focus on one person. It is unfortunate but stats show that 1 in 6 students are bullied on a regular basis. [2] So why the huge outcry? We need to do something about the kids who are still being bullied about their sexuality, religion, skin colour or for whatever reason. We need to broaden the scope on this issue if it is to be resolved. "About 30 percent of all completed suicides have been related to sexual identity crisis. Students who also fall into the gay, bisexual, lesbian or transgender identity groups report being five times as more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe after being bullied due to their sexual orientation." [3]
ReplyDeleteIt is a tragedy and the person responsible took it to far, she could have totally prevented this. I know it may sound harsh and I don't intend it to sound like that but in a way she brought it on herself.
1 - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_suicide_prevention_day/en/index.html
2 - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39758956/ns/health-childrens_health/t/students-regularly-bullied-survey-shows/
3 - http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/gay-bullying-statistics.html
Personally, I do not feel like anyone is saying Amanda is more important than any other person that is bullied, I just think it has caught more attention because her story was put up on YouTube. If her story was not all over YouTube, I doubt it would be such a popular news story. In regards to her putting it upon herself, I disagree. She was only twelve years old when she showed her body via webcam, meaning she was probably very naive about the internet. She was young and made a mistake, but that doesn't mean she deserved or asked to be so badly bullied. In my opinion, she is just as important any anyone who is bullied based on their sexual orientation, skin colors, or looks. What a person is bullied over should not matter, because in the end no one deserves to be bullied by their peers, and no one should have to end their own life because the pain they face is too much.
ReplyDeleteI think a large part of Amanda's case and many others, is that teenagers and children these days are not properly educated about the internet. Most do not realize that what you put out there, is there forever. Also, I believe another large part of bullying is that many people know someone is getting bullied, but they never do anything. For example, when Amanda was about to be beat up, a teacher noticed and ran over, but nothing was ever done about it. People need to start reacting to bullying when it is happening, not after the person has taken their life. Why wasn't Amanda's bullies looked for before she committed suicide? Why were they not criminally charged before?
Lastly, I am happy Amanda's story has been brought to light, because maybe now kids will think twice before they decide to bully someone. Maybe now they will realize the consequences their actions have
I personally agree with Brittany. There's been many bullying cases in that have gone viral and the word was spread more than other cases. In Amada Todd's case, I do believe it is rather different than most in the fact her video was posted via youtube ONE FULL MONTH before she committed suicide. It makes this case special, that there were people watching this video, seeing the primary cry for help, and nothing was done to try and stop this horrible event from happening. Also she was in grade 7, very very naive, and probably just started to explore her sexuality. She did make a mistake by flashing someone online, but do you think she knew it would come back to bite her over and over again. I think not. She even said it was a mistake that she could no longer take back. She shouldn't have been punished for this one mistake I'm sure MANY people make. This all being said; she did not bring it upon herself whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteThis story I hope will enlighten people about the dangers of the internet.
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ReplyDeleteAfter watching the video I have concluded this girls biggest worry wasn't just bullying. In the video she explains that a man gained access to her personal information such as her city, address, and names of her family. He extorted her and harassed her.
According to the Human Rights board of British Columbia; "Harassment occurs when a person or group is subjected (often repeatedly) to unwelcome comments or behavior that is insulting or demeaning, or is otherwise
offensive." (1)
In the video Amanda writes; "I got a msg on Facebook. From Him, don't know how he knew me... It said 'If you don't put on a show for me I will send ur boobs. He knew my address, school, relatives, friends, family names." (2)
During Amanda's Christmas vacation, the man had sent the picture to everyone. He does this not only once, but also again when Amanda moved to another town to escape her bullies.
This man harassed her. He repeatedly sent unwelcomed demeaning pictures of her to people she knew, multiple times. Amanda lived in BC, where harassment is illegal.
Nobody asks to be extorted, harassed, and bullied to death. Amanda's case is a tragic one, and the reason it got so much publicity is because she made the youtube video beforehand, a cry for help. There are many cases like Amanda's, and we need to do two things to stop this from happening so often. The school boards and government need to take bullying more seriously, as it is clearly a fatal issue. Secondly, we need to offer help for students who are risk, Amanda not receiving any help after asking desperately for it is not acceptable.
1) http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/human-rights-protection/pdfs/Harassment.pdf
2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7afkypUsc
I totally agree with Kailey, in suggesting the school boards and government need to take bullying more seriously. I believe that especially schools have the ability to monitor students. Often teachers and administration doesn't take too long to figure out about conflicts going on in our schools. Either through a cry for help from a victimized student or word of mouth. Most of our time is spent at school, and as teenage students we are undergoing a time of a lot of change, and with change comes progress. Progression in negative ways, for some, adapting violent, naive behaviours that lead to bullying. The intervention of confrontation by school authorities could greatly improve the amount of bullying that occurs in our schools.
DeleteIn my opinion, no one should be pushed to the point of taking their own lives. Although the story of Amanda Todd is tragic, it seems to me that all of a sudden everyone has become some sort of anti-bullying activist, meanwhile some of these people have been the bullies all along. For a few days on the social media sites Twitter, Facebook etc. All you could see was “ #ripamandatodd” or condolences to her family, but then two days after this everyone had returned back to their hostile ways, and cyber bullying was happening once again. All the while there are people who are still alive an arms length away from us having problems questioning their life and they still get called the “weird kid” or still sit alone at lunch, and its upsetting because you would hope that something like this would actually start to make people aware of how painful being bullied can be. I don’t understand how the fact that “she was naïve about the internet” can be used as an excuse for her flashing older boys, when living in the technological age that we do we are all taught that you should not talk to anyone online that you don’t know or go to someone’s house you’ve met on line or to show your naked body to strangers on the internet. Amanda Todd could have avoided many of the situations she was in all on her own. I think that people should start focusing more on people who have had their lives taken from them such as Malala Yousafzai rather than people who take their own. This was not meant to offend anyone just my own personal opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts on the Calgary man who was fired for posting to the Internet "Thank God this b%&#$! is dead"?
ReplyDeleteSee details here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/nasty-amanda-todd-memorial-page-gets-ontario-man-181832869.html
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ReplyDeleteWatching this video has left me with many thoughts. It makes me disgusted at how bullying can push a person this far. It’s very sad to see this happen to anyone, and bullying is such a big issue. I think videos like hers really do show the world the effects of cyber-bullying, and her video was a cry for help. The problem is, people don’t care enough. It is until AFTER it is heard that she has ended her life that people try to make a change. But the problem is, like Shona said, a few days after people do return to their own lives; forgetting about this problem. Yes Amanda Todd may have mad mistakes online, but she was young and obviously doesn’t think of what her consequences may be. From her mistakes she was bullied to the extreme, because of what she did online. I think that her story can be a good example to youth about how permanent the internet is. I think this can open people’s eyes, and make them think through their internet decisions more.
Also, with what Kailey said about the man harassing her, this can also show youth what internet can do. This man was a stranger, but some how found out all about her life. This is a huge problem, and internet can be very unsafe. 69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from people they do not know and most of them do not tell a trusted adult about it. (1). This shows that it is very easy for a stranger to contact you via internet.
I hope this story will open youth’s eyes about the dangers of talking with strangers via internet.
http://www.onlinesafetysite.com/P1/Teenstats.htm (1)
Personally, I feel like the man deserved to be fired. I know if I was an owner of a business, I would not want someone like him working for me. I mean, he is an adult, bullying a deceased fifteen year old. What does that tell you about his character? Nothing good. The company mentioned in the article that their, " company ethics are based on tolerance, respect, fair and honorable treatment for all individuates".(1) This included their customers and the population as a whole. I am happy the company stuck to their policies and fired him when they realized he went against those ethics. Further more, the man said that he was doing some sort of "social experiment" and trying to "stir the pot".(1) That right there tells you he is clearly immature and has no respect for Amanda's family, who are probably devastated with all that has happened. He should of just kept his opinions to himself, but instead turned into just another bully. Bravo to the company for putting their foot down. More companies should follow their example.
ReplyDelete(1) http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/nasty-amanda-todd-memorial-page-gets-ontario-man-181832869.html
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ReplyDeletePersonally when I first saw this video, I was very devastated that a girl at her age would have to be harassed because of a mistake she made when she wasn't as mature. (1)The cards go on to detail how Todd turned to alcohol and drugs to cope with the resulting depression and anxiety. Things improved for a while after she changed schools but the bullying eventually started again. She tells one story of how she was physically attacked. However after hearing other information I do not feel as bad for her now because after I was informed that she didn't only reveal her once on webcam but her performed webcam "shows" for not only the same man but many different men.
Amanda Todd’s story is devastating but I completely agree with Shona. No one truly cares enough to stop this cyber bullying until for a couple of days when a people have pushed someone so far that they take their own life. After a couple days over twitter I witnessed cyber bullying and the people I had witnessed tweeting days ago #RIPAmandaTodd were the exact same people joining in by cyber bullying. I believe social media has the biggest influence in this. When a girl is this depressed over what has happened to her in the past, why would she even think about preparing a video and posting it on YouTube. I feel if that had happened to me posting a video on YouTube. Some people would say this girl was just looking for attention and sometimes I have to agree.
However what the man did was not acceptable. To post onto her Memorial Page that he’s glad that she is dead for her family members to see is disgusting. Her family is obviously morning the loss of their beautiful daughter and there is no reason for that. I am glad he was fired from his position at work because his actions were very inappropriate
(1) http://www.theprovince.com/news/Amanda+Todd+cyberbullying+case+sets+police+investigation/7382591/story.html
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ReplyDeleteI'm going to start this off by saying that I do believe that what happened to this girl truly was tragic. No one should have to turn to suicide in their lives, there should always be another way out. When I was told from my friends to view this video, I first felt complete remorse for her. However, as the video continued, I thought to myself "How many of these cases happen a day?". Things like this happen so much in our society through media, high school, the workplace and even the home. As we all began to care and talk about Amanda Todd and what she was going through, did anyone think to look around and wonder how many people at our school feel the same as she did. I feel as if the only reason that her specific case became so known throughout Canada was because she created a viral video. Media has everything to do with a girls self esteem. We have been brought up to know that if you are not skinny and if you have "imperfections" then no one is going to think that you are beautiful. No matter what anyone says, in your life time you have been the bullied and you have bullied someone else. I truly do not believe anyone in our age group can exclude themselves from it. We have been taught over and over that bullying is wrong and that it should never happen, then why does it still occur? One of my thoughts is that in our society, we all want to be right or feel that we have power over another person. Some people could make the point that Amanda Todd was simply looking for attention after she posted her viral video, however, if that would have been the case I do not think she would have gone through with actually committing suicide. The depression that she had could not have simply just gone away. It is something that would have stuck with her forever. As well as pointing fingers at the man and the other children who bullied her, I believe our society should point a big finger at the media. Without having these images to look up to and fantasize on looking that way, the girls growing up now would have more self confidence knowing that what they are is exactly what they are supposed to be. There should not just be attention set on Amanda Todd, we should take her courageous deed of creating that video and use it as something to teach each and everyone of us that when you see the "nerd", or the "fat girl" instead of scoffing at them and saying something mean, how about we learn to compliment each other and live together harmoniously. By doing so I do believe that for some people the daily chore of having to come to school again and again without happiness will be revoked and we can help build a better society.
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_(mood)
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Amanda_Todd
3. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters/article/1273859--amanda-todd-learning-the-lessons
4. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1273960--amanda-todd-toronto-students-to-remember-bullied-teen-who-committed-suicide
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ReplyDeleteAmanda Todd is a tragedy that has struck a number of people in multiple ways. Some people continue to bully her even in death (as the Calgary man who lost his job did, and even some of our peers as well) which is absolutely atrocious. People have the misconception that people care more about Amanda Todd than they care about other suicides that have happened and continue to happen, and that is false. About 3,600 people commit suicide in Canada each year. That's about 10 suicides per day. And for every successful suicide, there are 20 to 25 attempts. (1)
The reason Amanda Todd's death has gone viral isn't because she's "more important" than everyone else, but because people are finally becoming aware that this happens every day. Awareness has been raised and it's time for action.
Suicide is an escape. In the case of teen suicides, they may feel as though their current situation is impossible to deal with and they need out--fast. Feelings of rejection, guilt, hopelessness, depression, anger, and more can trigger suicide. (2)
We, being teens ourselves, should take these facts into consideration. For all we know, someone in our school could be experiencing these same feelings, and they may even be considering taking their own lives to get away from those feelings. But what sorts of things can cause these feelings? One of the main roles would certainly be bullying. (3)
In Amanda Todd's case, bullying was certainly the trigger. I believe that cases of bullying should be tackled much more severely. Bullies deserve much more than a slap on the wrist. Maybe bullies don't realize the consequences of their actions, or maybe they do and choose not to care, either way, bullying is wrong and it needs to be prevented and taken much more seriously. Anti-bullying groups, such as bullying.org, estimate that Canadian high schools experience 282,000 incidents of bullying per month. (4) That's an incredibly high number--an incredibly high number that we all should fight to lower.
Bullies need to realize and understand the results of their actions and suicide due to bullying should be treated as murder, or at least much more severely than a scolding and school suspension. People need to be more aware of what goes on in their school and instead of turning away from a bullying incident, we should say something. Whether we say it to the bully, say it to the victim, or tell a teacher; something needs to be done.
(1) http://www.ctvnews.ca/factsheet-who-is-most-at-risk-for-suicide-in-canada-1.706169
(2) http://www.teenhelp.com/teen-suicide/why-teens-commit-suicide.html
(3) http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html
(4) http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/Bullying+Canada+breaking+point+says/7392001/story.html
I think that everyone should move on! Why do we always talk about the innocent girl who killed herself because but we never talk about anyone else. Like people in Africa who fight for their lives everyday! Nope, were going to cry about and focus our attention on this poor girl who showed herself to random strangers when she was in grade 7! GRADE 7. Are you kidding me thats ridiculous. The fact that you did that is your own fault and we shouldn't feel sorry for you. I don't feel any sympathy towards her. Personally though the bulling part of this story is worth while talking about. Even though as a Student at this school I don't feel like much bullying happens in our school it's mostly other stuff. I don't have first hand experience on the subject of bullying but it should be dealt with. For example the kids that take their lives because they get bullied about something they can't control such as looks or smarts. These are the stories of bullying we should be concerned about not this!
ReplyDeleteThis is my weekly post. In my opinion, bullying is one of the most horrendous acts of abuse one person can inflict on another. In the case of Amanda Todd, she was exploited, harassed and was subject to extortion. Yes, it is quite evident that fourteen year old Amanda made a mistake, but what teenager doesn’t? Maybe even not as a teenager but at some point or another in our lives, we make mistakes; we are after all only human. I’m willing to bet that almost 80% if not more of the kids who ridiculed and belittled Amanda for her mistake, made similar choices themselves. The girls who called Amanda a “slut” and a “whore” were most likely insecure about something in their own lives since they were so consumed with having to place the reputation that comes with those words on someone else. I feel as though Amanda was used as a sort of scapegoat at every school she attended. The students of that school were able to minimize their own problems because “this Amanda girl has messed up way more than I have.” Instead of empathizing with one another and understanding that a mistake is a mistake, the students, like vultures, picked apart Amanda until eventually, there was nothing left. “In a closed society, where everybody is guilty, the only crime is getting caught.” (1) It just so happened that the man who hunted—and that truly is what he did in his constant preying of her—had access to advanced computer knowledge and the ability to hack private data bases.
ReplyDeleteWhat infuriates and upsets me the most about this whole situation was, as afore mentioned, Amanda’s blatant outcry for help. YouTube is one of the world’s largest social media and sharing websites and has over 800 million users (2) and yet, not one out of the thousands of people who viewed Amanda’s video before she passed away thought “hey this girl really needs help” or if they did, none of them acted on that notion.
Now, as far as “cracking down” on bullying goes by the government and education officials, well of course, I’m all for that. However, we have seen this type of thing happen time and time again and the positive repercussions that come out of these tragic events is often, unfortunately, fairly temporary. People become so riled up and fixated on a certain story, they become engrossed with the person and are emphatic to them. They want to see the bullying stop, they want the suicide rates to go down, so they adjust their lives, try to be better, try to stand up for those who can’t do so themselves…at least for a little while. Three months later, another big story comes up in the media and with all the frenzy over this new epidemic, the old one is soon forgotten, all the “changed” people revert back to their old ways, the prodding facebook comments, “subtweets” and social exclusion begins again.
The media, whether it be social, informative etc is a tool that can be used to do the bidding of both the good and the evil. For example, Kony 2012 was a worldwide campaign that aimed to raise awareness about Joseph Kony and what he was doing to children in Uganda. (3) In this case, word of Kony spread like wildfire across the social networking board and donations and awareness spread almost instantaneously. As a result, to entirely blame media as being the results of our problems isn’t entirely false, but without media, a lot of the things we have and do every day would no longer be accessible.
The internet is a beautiful disaster, both a blessing and a curse and every day we give a small piece of ourselves to the internet. I believe that the problem that needs to be addressed is knowing which pieces you should give to the media and which are meant to stay with you alone.
(1) Part of a quote by Hunter S. Thompson
(2) http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics
(3) http://www.wikihow.com/Help-Spread-the-Word-of-Kony-2012