Suicide of Amanda Todd

suicide of a Canadian student in 2012

Amanda Michelle Todd (born November 27, 1996) committed suicide on October 10, 2012 at the age of 15 at her home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. She was a sophomore when she died. On September 7, 2012, she posted a video on YouTube called My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self-harm. Todd's suicide was written about in lots of newspapers. Many news websites linked to Todd's video. It had 1,600,000 views by October 13, 2012. Todd's death made people pay attention to the issue of cyberbullying.[2] People made memorial pages for Todd on Facebook. Some people posted mean comments on them.[3]

Suicide of Amanda Todd
LocationPort Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
CauseSuicide
InquestBritish Columbia Coroners Service
SuspectsAydin Coban
ChargesIndecent assault and child pornography (Netherlands)[1]

Background change

On her YouTube video Todd revealed that she showed her breasts on a video chat. She got a message on Facebook from a man. The message said that if Todd did not show more parts of her body then he would post the pictures he had taken of her from the video chat to the Internet. The police came to her home to tell her that photos of her were sent to "everyone". Todd then got depression and panic disorder. She started abusing alcohol and drugs. Todd was asked by a boy to come to his house. The boy had a girlfriend but he acted like he liked Todd. She went to his house. The next week the boy's girlfriend appeared at Todd's school with fifteen other people. Todd was hurt really really bad and it was filmed by people who watched. When she went home she drank bleach. People made fun of her for doing this and wrote on Facebook that they wished that she had not survived.[4]

Aftermath change

A 35-year-old man was charged with extortion, internet luring, criminal harassment and child pornography in connection with Todd's suicide in 2014.[5]

References change

  1. Dutch man's case linked to Amanda Todd Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine, MSN.com, 18 April 2014, Hainsworth, J., Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  2. "Tormenters target teen's online memorials - CTV News". www.ctvnews.ca.
  3. "Amanda Todd: Bullied girl's memorial pages targeted by negative messages - The Star". thestar.com.
  4. CNN, By Lateef Mungin. "Bullied Canadian teen leaves behind chilling YouTube video". CNN. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  5. "Charges over Todd cyber-bullying". 18 April 2014 – via www.bbc.co.uk.

Other websites change