Amanda Todd Suicide, Its Effects On Internet Culture

So this girl was sexually abused at age 13 by a man on the internet that then took her (extremely illegal) nude picture and sent it to everyone in her community. She was ostracized by her community, so badly that her parents decided to move to another town. She started abusing drugs and alcohol, and practicing self-mutilation. The harassment followed her there, and then she was sexually manipulated by a teenage boy who took advantage of her fragile state of mind to have sex with her and then told his girlfriend about it, who then attacked her in the presence of 50 other children. Upon arriving home, she attempted suicide by drinking bleach. She moved again but was still bullied by other children who posted pictures of bleach and ditches and tagged her in it on Facebook. She then attempted suicide twice more, the second being successful.

After the death of this child, a Facebook page was put up memorializing her as a victim of cyberbullying. This page got a majority of support, but also continues to receive attacks and posts of her (illegal pornographic) half-nude picture.

This ties in with the concept of internet trolling, once a tiny group of unrelated people, mostly relegated to sites like 4chan, who enjoyed making people angry with deliberately ignorant posts, now a growing phenomenon over the internet. The establishment of Facebook pages as troll identities has contributed anonymity as a resource for trolling. With the recent suicide of Amanda Todd and the sexual nature of her story, troll pages have been posting non-stop. What is it about our society and the internet culture that produces this activity? Why are some children so inclined to this behavior? It should be noted that a large portion of Facebook troll pages are run by children of ages 13-17, and that many trolls are children who have been disenfranchised from their society. How does a society reach out to these children and bring them back in? Should these children be held responsible for their actions if they use their identities to post child pornography if it is in the name of "trolling?" Similarly, are these children guilty of criminal harassment for making statements such as "kill yourself" to other children who disagree with them?

Another issue to tie into this is slut-shaming, the rape culture and how it applies to her situation. Many people are posting (and I'm sure talking) about how this girl "was a slut" and deserved what happened to her; elsewhere, there are circles going on about how this girl was spoiled, how she whined about her life too much and didn't appreciate what she had, ignoring that she was a victim of physical and sexual abuse by both children and adults. What is it about this particular case that inspires slut-shaming to such an extreme degree? If child pornography laws state that she was not legally responsible for her actions (which it does), was she still personally responsible for what she did? Was the sexual relationship that she had with the boy who had his girlfriend beat her up her own fault, or was she a victim of sexual manipulation and violent harassment?

I would like to say that personally I am disgusted by this incident and how it is being viewed in the eyes of many people younger than me and some people who are of the same age. I think that this is a horrifying example of how the rape culture not only produces suicides, but also condemns the victims, even when they are children. I think that this is yet another step in the wrong direction in a counterculture that I once got a laugh out of, a social crime in the same vein as cancer-joking and holocaust denial. These are vicious children and they are viewed as leaders in their circles, leading other children toward violent and sociopathic lifestyles. What do you think?

 

I read about this the other day.

It's a fucked up world. What more can be said? This stuff probably happens more than most people think.

 

some people on 4chan found out who did it (posted the pics or watever) and posted the kids name and address i believe

 

How can you be sexually abused over the internet? She willingly sent the picture.. She could have simply signed out or delete/block the guy or whatever.. so i feel no pitty there, although it was a dick move for the guy to send it around.. he should be charged for that.

And the second time she got 'sexually abused' .. was from a guy her age just being a typical guy, a douche of course, but no different from a lot of guys.. from what we hear here, he used no physical abuse whatsoever, so again... it was her own willing choice..

It's sad and all how she killed herself and kids made fun of her... but.. you can't blame that on the "sexual abuse"... from what i hear she was just am emotional wreck, kids wouldn't randomly make fun of her everywhere she went.. there has to be a reason why they'd start making fun of her in the first place.. she was probably one of those gothy emo slutty girls that hung out with older guys and smoked and skipped class all the time thinking she's the shit, i know the type lol.. but of course i don't actually know that for a fact.. just what it sounds like, she could be the complete opposite in reality...

all in all, i agree its sad

 

Meh, i'm watching the video she made that's on youtube, after seeing that i feel a little worse for her.. the guy that kept stalking her and sending all her new friends the topless picture of her is a complete creep with no life whatsoever, catch him and give him the death penalty just for the fuck of it lol, one less looser freak in the world

 

What have i told you about your use of the terms loser, loose, and lose lol??
you are always getting them wrong

anyways yea guy who did that is fucen weird. chop his fucken cock off

 

loll by bad , loser**


I'm surprised that people actually commented on her facebook and over the internet before she died that they hope she's dead and that she should kill herself... Who says that shit? That's not even funny trolling, it's just fucked up and those people have issues... I hope this haunts them.

I really don't get why she just didnt delete her facebook though... i guarantee the freak with the picture kept finding her by stalking her facebook... she should have just deleted that shit and get off the internet for a while.. if she would have played it off cool she eventually would have just been another random naked girl on the ineternet that nobody even knows about, as she got older people wouldnt even recognize its her or even know how to find it in the first place..

 

That's another problem with the internet culture. The name and address they posted probably isn't even correct, and someone is going to go and stalk/harass/intimidate the person who actually does live there. The Wikipedia page says that the poster has not yet been identified. It likely wasn't a kid who got the picture, it was a grown man. The fact that he is an adult and she was a child takes it from a bad choice on her part to sexual manipulation on his part.

 

So here is the video that she posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7afkypUsc"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7afkypUsc

 

Poor girl. Stalked and persecuted relentlessly. What a shame. May she RIP.

 

and now her pic is being using on meme generator sites..totally gross and uncalled for

 

It's a shame but I don't see how it will change anything... There are some sick fucks out there, and that's not gonna change.


R.I.P. Little one....

 

A kid her age should be out having fun with friends not dealing with this kind of crap. The whole situation is sad. I hope she rests in peace.

 

Yeah, the word trolling kind of makes it seem okay for people to do this..'oh its fine, its only trolling'...no not fine. Maybe she did bring it on herself a little bit but thats not the point, the point is a 13 year old child who should have been learning and enjoying her life, felt that unloved that she took her own life. That poor kid, I can only half imagine what she was feeling at the time and what was going through her mind. I was bullied (both IRL and cyber) and I easily could have killed myself. I dont think kids fully understand the damage bullying does, one comment can stick with you for an entire lifetime and even more so when your young and still working life out and becoming your own person. Kids cry out for help in different ways, for me it took a full on mental breakdown in the middle of school for someone to realise just how damaged I was from it, another girl in one of my classes started cutting her wrists in the middle of a lesson - that was fucked up and people still pointed and laughed and shouted abuse, and for this poor girl it was obviously too late

I'm not sure how or why people find it fun, but for some reason they do and thats what needs to stop. I'm sick of people constantly blaming the victims, 'you were a sitting duck' 'you brought it on yourself' 'you should have fought back'. The even sadder part is the fact that half the bullies have had abuse dealt to them throughout their lives too, and the other half are following a crowd and looking for a cheap thrill. Schools need to be more open to bullying and catch it out before it starts. I found, the amount of help I'd asked for went basically unnoticed, almost like it was irrelevant until it got physical, that made me lose hope and feel even more like no one cared, I didn't want to ask for help anymore because it was non existent. Meh. Both verbal and cyber bullying are just as harmful.

Regardless of the naked photos, she did not deserve any of that, what she needed was some serious love and support. RIP Amanda.

 

When I was younger and my sister was just about to join highschool I done a little 'exercise' with her because she had been bullied a bit in primary school and pretty much wanted revenge. I made her screw up a piece of paper as tight as she could, then flatten it back out again. I showed her how even though the paper was flat, the marks or scars, were still there from when it had been crumpled. Just like a person, once the damage is done then its done, no matter how much you try to reconcile it, its always there. This made her realise that by getting revenge she could possibly scar someone for life - she never once said a bad word about anyone

I feel so strongly against bullying, wish there was more than one person could do!

 

I have a daughter who is 6 years old. As a parent I have to imagine that Amanda's parents were excited the day they found out they were having a baby. Loved that baby from the moment she was born. Cherished every memory with her as a child, like the day she came home from the hospital, took her first steps, said her first words. I have to imagine that there were lots of great moments between then and the time this drama started for her. Her parents had to watch as this child that they've raised and loved was tormented and assaulted so relentlessly that no amount of moving could make it stop.

They had to witness her attempts to injure and kill herself because of how people wanted to see her hurting so badly that they were even encouraging suicide. The thought of this poor girl sitting alone at lunch hurt me as a parent. No one wants that for their kids. The rest of this story is hard to think about. Her Dad had to come pick her up while she layed in a ditch after being punched by another girl? Then find her cutting herself and drinking bleach?

All because she made a stupid decision and flashed her boobs to a predator. This poor girl had to die over that? I don't understand why the parents didn't shut down the Facebook and homeschool this girl. The moving away may have been more effective if they did but who really knows.

I just put my little girl on the schoolbus a short while ago. She looked so tiny walking up to the bus with her hello kitty backpack. She's a sweet kid. She likes to hold my hand and watch cartoons. Forces me to play that game "trouble" with the little bubble and dice for hours. I have a constant cramp in my neck because she climbs up my back like a monkey and won't get the heck off no matter what. The more I whine about it the more she laughs.

One day she is gonna be a teenager though and stories like Amanda's scare the hell outta me as a parent.

 

This whole thing is so fucked. The internet is either going to save us or destroy us, and this doesn't give me any faith that we're moving in the right direction. This kind of shit makes me so terrified to become a parent.

 

omg... i just watched the video. How heartbreaking. What is WRONG with these people? Where has compassion for another human being gone?

 

!Ripper is hardcore.

Rest In Peace to all the Internet casualties.

 

I truly am shocked at the treatment of this girl. Of course she made a bad decision flashing her tits online and then with the boy but to be relentlessly harrassedlike that? What I can't understand though is why she still had,wanted to have and was allowed to have any dealing at all with social networking sites!