Amanda Todd Suicide

[Curtiss]

IMO this is what I call a Fucked up situation. There's more than enough blame for the girl, the bullies, and probably her parents.

Yes she shouldn't have flashed a random stranger on the internet. Does that mean the guy shouldn't be prosecuted for harassment and child pornography? No.
Yes she slept with a guy who was in a relationship. Does that mean he didn't take advantage of her depression and vulnerability? No. It's a freaking high school relationship. Some are measured in minutes...
Yes she turned to drugs, alcohol, and cutting.
Yes she clearly sought attention. Does that mean she wanted the harassment and violence to continue? No. Every high school student wants attention and recognition.
Yes these were all personal choices.

She did bad things. She made mistakes. Yet I believe NO ONE should have to face harassment and beatings. This story is receiving a lot of attention because she is a pretty white girl and "cyber bullying" is a hot topic right now. But that should not be held against her personally or be used to discredit the importance of the actual issues. A CHILD committed suicide and on some level was pushed into it by the treatment of others. I do not mean to blame bullies or any one else for her death. It was her choice, but that doesn't mean others are completely blameless either.

Disclaimer: My girlfriend is in a different, but partially related Fucked up situation. I have learned only one thing that I now believe with complete certainty. No one personal is completely to blame and can be held responsible. It takes several people a LOT of time, effort, and above all patience to pull someone out of a downward spiral of repeated bad decisions.

Sadly she couldn't or wouldn't work through her problems. It's sad, but the story is not worth the full (social) media attention it has attracted.

I have to bold that part just to say how much I agree with that. For my part I can't bring myself to feel bad for her because regardless of her depression and anxiety problems these are largely problems she created on her own and on top of that I have to question exactly how did they come to know all of the other details like her drinking bleach (Was it the video? I can't be fussed to check).

While it's my hope that this case will help to curb cyber bullying I think there's a more dire need for all education systems to begin educating children about the dangers of the Internet because it that's more difficult for people to bully you if you don't present anything interesting and you don't make yourself vulnerable. As long as they continue to make themselves targets intentionally or unintentionally, we're simply going to be shaking our heads and laws are useless to prevent the damage if the content is going to be spread over and over.

[Ryosuke]

I wonder if anyone here has read what 'Anonymous' the Hacktivist group has exposed about Amanda. They actually caught a lot of heat for doing it. Basically exposed how she slept around, and shed a little more light on the situation, which didn't help Amanda look any better.

However, they later also went and exposed the name of the person who originally asked her to take her top off, and threatened to use it against her. I believe he was in his 30s.

[Curtiss]

I wonder if anyone here has read what 'Anonymous' the Hacktivist group has exposed about Amanda. They actually caught a lot of heat for doing it. Basically exposed how she slept around, and shed a little more light on the situation, which didn't help Amanda look any better.

However, they later also went and exposed the name of the person who originally asked her to take her top off, and threatened to use it against her. I believe he was in his 30s.

Funny that you should mention that because I just finished reading the article. I'm hoping that these people do not beat the man up even if he deserves it because if they have his information they should get it to the police as soon as possible so that some justice can be found. Basically, what they're doing right now is counter-productive. If this guy gets wind of this and somehow escapes it's going to be even worse than before.

And huh, shows that the shoe drops both ways and all.

[Worthyness]

Umm this is bulls'hit. It isn't that the younger generation is spoiled and that they take things for granted that we have a messed up society, but the problem is that MOST people do not give a s'hit about others in the world. Many people regardless of age are selfish and uncaring, but there are also those who do care. I agree with your underlieing point, but it is ridiculous to blame society's problems on adolescents.



Kids will always make stupid decisions. That is what makes them kids and is a part of growing up. I do agree with you that involving the internet in those decisions tends to make things a lot worse, but what @Raph589; was saying is that it is amazing that so many people die all over the world from curable ails (like hunger or dehydration), but when one white girl kills herself, the media goes nuts. I understand that this happened in Canada, which is a developed country close to the United States, and that it brings up real issues of current concern, but it is incredible how people nit-pick what they want to discuss on a societal scale.

At your first rebuttal: I was going off my own experiences. I know there's a bunch of societal douchebags in every generation, but to me it's just become more apparent in the newer generation, though I suppose that can be blamed also on the widespread thing we call the internet- it just brought things so together, we see into each others lives much more significantly than we had before. My thoughts behind this is the fact that the younger generation has grown up in a world where everything is linked together and thus they explore a world in which not even the government has managed to control (yet?). And because of this connectivity, they see and do things much more easily under the assumption that everything is "safe" to do and that whatever someone tells them is obviously true. It's just weird to think about what would happen if my generation, or my parents generation, grew up with the internet as a main media format- would events like this have happened back then? Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see what happens in time. I do suppose I'm basing this too much on observation, so for that, I am sorry.

At your second point: I do agree kids make stupid mistakes and decisions, but again, from my experience, the newer internet-borne generation doesn't seem to learn from their mistakes. It's hard to blame the internet because it gives us so much, but it really does take away just as much, if not more. The media can explode on this story on all mediums- the internet just makes their influence all that much more significant. I just find it sad how our first world society doesn't even know what the other 3/4 of the world is experiencing. Just like how stupid people on the internet said "lol revenge for pearl Harbor" when Japan got hit by the 8.9 earthquake or the idiot people who would just spam #KNOY2012 without knowing that IC wasn't the absolute best "charity" to throw their money at. It's as if people don't seem to think for themselves and it feels awful. Perhaps if people learned to think things through before they acted, more of this stuff wouldn't happen. But I suppose that's what our parents thought about our generation and how our grandparents thought about our parents' generation. The cycle, I suppose, continues. We just have to adjust to the new and up and coming ways that our children and our children's children will be able to hurt themselves (un)intentionally.

[SolicShooter]

You know society is messed up when people cry over ONE person who KILLED HERSELF rather than over the thousands who die everyday from hunger and sickness in 3rd world countries. Think about explaining that story to a starving 10 years old kid who just lost both of his parents in Africa. I don't think he's actually going to start crying over her death. If anything, he will laugh at the absurdity of the story.

Why do we have to care for one or the other? Why can't we care for both? Trivialising this by essentially saying 'it can be worse' is a horrible thing to do, really.

[CrazyForDex]

@Worthyness;

It is hard to observe whether or not this "internet-borne generation" as you say is learning from their mistakes or not. I feel that it is not an assumption we can make because you only see a very small amount of individuals making decisions and it is very hard to see how they are affected internally and whether or not they actually learn anything. Therefore it is far too easy to stereotype them, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, once again. I will agree that adolescents can be gullible and until they are made aware of what the internet actually is, they are pretty vunerable to internet veterans or ass holes who can manipulate them. It must be fairly difficult being born into a world where the internet has already existed for this long and is so crucial to so much of social interactions nowadays. I feel pretty fortunate that the internet was just starting out in my lifetime.

Like I said earlier in this thread, the internet expresses a very cynical view of the world. Allowing people to interact on a global scale without requiring physical interaction makes it so you can say whatever you want, whether or not you actually believe those things or would act that way irl. Imo, this is why there are so many trolls and bigots on the internet. Obviously education, morals, and upbrinding factor into it, but I believe that primarily the fact that you can say anything to anyone without any real consequences allows people to disregard common sense and logic.

[Raph589]

Why do we have to care for one or the other? Why can't we care for both? Trivialising this by essentially saying 'it can be worse' is a horrible thing to do, really.

It's because people, in general, care more for stories like that than for the crap that goes on everywhere in the world.