Amanda Todd and cyber bullies

[QueenofDreams]

So I've taken a look and I haven't seen anything about this here, so I thought I'd bring this to the attention of Mumsnet. I came across this video on youtube yesterday and was very saddened to hear that this poor girl committed suicide last wednesday.

To me this looks like and extreme example of victim blaming. She was targeted by a sexual predator over the internet at the age of 12, yet she is branded a whore and a slut. Even now people comment that she deserved to die. Please watch the video, I would be interested in other people's thoughts on her story.

It makes me terribly sad that this girl was reaching out so desparately for acceptance and friendship and got nothing back but hate.

.

Reading this story makes me despair, it really does. While poor Amanda made a few bad decisions, they probably came out of a lack of self-worth and a 12/14-year-old's naivete. But as a result, she suffered an abnormal amount of hatred and abuse, and as her parents seem to have done nothing to help her, she had no-one to support her through that.

The biggest thing to me is that the man who took the picture of her doesn't appear to have been pursued for owning child pornography, stalking, blackmail, harrassment ... why? A child took her own life because, essentially, some creep got off on intimidating her. And then another creep took advantage of her perceived "whore" status and essentially groomed her for sex.

I recommend not reading any comments section on ANY article about Amanda. It will make you boil with rage at the immaturity and victim-blaming that is rife on the internet.

I agree, I totally despair at the comments saying she wasn't innocent, she got what was coming to her etc. Yet no hatred is directed at the grown man who got her to flash in the first place, took a picture and then tried to blackmail her into performing sexually for him over the internet. Only now that she's dead are the police seriously hunting for him. It's utterly shameful.

My dd showed me this yesterday. Very sad. Very.

This is an incredibly sad story. I've read reports of her death, which have included some of the horrible comments left online following her death.

Unbelievable. Poor girl. I hope she is finally at peace.

This is so awful and horrible; facebook is the work of the devil at times like these. This poor child. This is unbelievably sad

• not just facebook, but all faceless internet communications that lure children in when they have no idea of the consequences. So sad.

Totally agree. The facelessness also gives people the freedom to unleash a level of nastiness they wouldn't show to someone's face. Although it seems that that treatment spilt over into real life in her face viciousness as well.

I just don't understand why people don't grasp the fact that she was a child who was taken advantage of, and didn't deserve even a fraction of the hate levelled at her.

That poor little girl. I was bullied at school, at every school I went to except 6th form. It was awful but at least I could shut it all out when I went home. These days cyber bullying means kids have no escape from the taunts. My youngest SIL was bullied this way, too, although fortunatly it stopped a year ago.
Poor, poor girl.

RIP Amanda Todd.

I was bullied badly at school too, LittleWhiteWolf - ironically, I used to go home and escape from it on the internet! by playing Neopets
Now there is just no escape. I won't be able to just let DS use the internet like my parents did when I was a kid, it's so much easier now to get sucked into horrible, horrible things.

I hope your SIL is okay now xxx

So, today it emerges that an online hacker vigilante group have revealed the alleged) culprit of taking her topless photos (at 12), posting them all over facebook and stalking her - sending again every time she moved school as an (ex?) Facebook employee. here

My god. Some of the comments on that video. There are some sick bastards out there.

That was a child. A bloody child. Poor, poor girl. It's heartbreaking. How can people be so cruel?

Sickening, the poor child. I don't understand why the police weren't involved when this first started. Child pornography, stalking, harrassment of a child....horrible, hope the fucker responsible is severely punished, finally...

queenofdreams I don't understand a lot of things, it seems: a person of 12 is a child, isn't she? A child??

After I looked at the Amanda Todd video I watched a few others; all made by teenagers who have been abused/bullied. I had no idea about these videos. It was incredibly sad to watch them, but also sort of uplifting that they had found a voice, somehow, god knows how for some of these teenagers, albeit online. (but some of the comments were breathtakingly cruel - although many were kind and supportive).

I also don't understand.....

its very sad. How awful that she felt the only way out was suicide. I wonder how much her parents knew - or didnt know.

i would have thrown away everysingle computer from the house. closed facebook. twitter. all accounts would have gone.

then i would have dealt with any bullying that was not cyber in the most robust way possible because if its not cyber bullying it means you can get your hands on the little fuckers

When I first heard of this news, from my DS (aged 22y) I thought it was a spoof, a hoax, an apocryphal story to show young girls the potential fallout from "sexting".

I am very, very sad that it isn't, that it's real, that this child actually took her own life. That she wasn't engaged in "sexting" at all, but was being abused.

But maybe, just maybe , it will have that effect, and teenage people will stop "sexting" each other? Creating childporn is never a good idea, even if you're the child involved.

I'm going to bed now, will await my flaming later.