You may have read about the heartbreaking story of Amanda Todd, a Canadian teenager who recently posted a much-watched YouTube video (posted below) detailing the bullying and harassment she’d endured online and in real life. This past Wednesday, she was found dead, the apparent victim of suicide.
Here, from the Vancouver Sun, is the basic outline of Amanda’s story:
Amanda was 12 years old when she made a mistake that would haunt her until her death three years later.
Her ordeal started while she was fooling around online with friends. She probably didn’t think it was risky behaviour when she lifted her top to flash the person who was flattering her at the other end of the webcam.
Amanda’s moment of indiscretion was not unusual for someone her age: Sexting and using webcams to share sexual photos is a growing trend among children, some so young they are still in grade school.
“The Internet stalker she flashed kept stalking her,” said Carol. “Every time she moved schools he would go undercover and become a Facebook friend. What the guy did was he went online to the kids who went to (the new school) and said that he was going to be a new student — that he was starting school the following week and that he wanted some friends and could they friend him on Facebook.”
“He eventually gathered people’s names and sent Amanda’s video to her new school.”
The video and photos went to teachers, to parents, to Facebook friends, which lead to repeated taunts: “Oh, there’s the porn star.” …
Amanda was the victim of unrelenting blackmail. And the cyberspace stalker was aided by people in Amanda’s real-world life — kids who would share the photos on their cellphones, kids who would gang up to hurl first verbal abuse and then fists at her.
Amanda’s story illustrates what can happen to young girls when sexualized images of them floating around online, whether they’ve put these pictures up themselves in a moment of poor judgement or whether someone has stolen them from password-locked private photo albums, or whether someone has surreptitiously taken an “upskirt” or “down-the-blouse” or some other compromising picture of them in public. This is the sort of damage that things like the Jailbait and Creepshots subreddits can do to young girls. This is why it’s so important that things like these subreddits be shut the fuck down.
Sadly, even after her suicide, Amanda remains the target of bullies and assholes online.
One of these assholes? The MRA and atheist videoblogger and all-around terrible person known to the world as The Amazing Atheist, whom we first met when he had a Reddit meltdown and started spewing misogynistic abuse at his detractors. Now he’s spitting on Amanda’s memory.
Mocking the format of Amanda’s video, in which told her story by holding up sheets of paper to the camera describing the abuse she’s endured, The Amazing Atheist posted this picture to his Tumblr blog earlier today:
I simply can’t comprehend the mind of someone whose response to Amanda’s story is this. Beyond awful.
Here’s Amanda’s video:
The hacker group Annymous has released the identity of a man they allege is Amamda Todds tomentor.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/15/bc-amanda-todd-tormentor-anonymous.html?cmp=rss
pillowinhell: That’s great that they found him, although I fear they’re going to just do the same thing he did to Amanda to him. Even though this guy was disgusting, nobody should do that to him. They should just get him arrested and punished by the law. Has anyone told the police yet?
i was a weird kid, and a minority at my school. (inner city magnet school) i only attended 1 year of high school, and in the normal run of things, i would have been bullied. my brother, in the grade below, was bullied and harassed daily. the only thing that saved me from bullying was that pretty much everyone thought i was crazy. i was not a normal kid, and i showed it. it’s a shame that the only thing that kept those kids from harassing me was fear. they saw what i did everyday, they didn’t want to know what i might do if upset. i never saw anyone bullied in front of me, because i sure would have jumped in. i agree with the poster upthread, skeptifem? who thinks the environment of school makes for a rigid and hierarchical system in which there have to be losers. the stupid thing is that most of those “high school winners” get out into the world and are suddenly REALLY not important. the only answer i have is reforming schools, although, i would have to say that romney’s behaviour has completely been that of the bully he was as a teen. so it doesn’t always go away.
That’s what I was wondering. Vigilantism is wrong anyway, but with the additonal “what if it’s NOT him?” question it gets even uglier. Give the details to the police and let them do their job.
I just looked it up, and from the image I’ve seen, it’s circumstantial evidence that he did this to Amanda Todd. It may not be him. However, it’s pretty much certain that he did have a victim who was a child. So he should be reported to the police.
With all the attention from the media this case has, we shouldn’t have to worry about the police putting off an investigation for this like they do with many rape cases.
Have they handed this info over to law enforcement? Not only is just handing it over to the general public a bad idea because of potential vigilante stuff, it’s also possible that the cops may already have eliminated this person from this particular investigation, or that leaking the name too soon might interfere with their ability to actually get a conviction.
Basically I’m hoping they’ve done the smart thing and just helpfully passed on whatever info they have to the proper law enforcement agencies.
And will the evidence be admissible in court?
Cassandra: I don’t know if they have. Probably a few, but judging from what I know about most cases of Internet justice, I can make an educated guess that most haven’t and are probably sending him pizza or something.
princessbonbon: Yes. They didn’t do anything illegal, surprisingly. They managed to find it entirely through information he posted on the Internet and Google cache. This guy is apparently a huge participant in “jailbait” websites.
Here’s a weird development: The guy identified as Amanda’s Todd’s blackmailer was in court today on charges unrelated to Todd (but related to him being an alleged pedo shitstain):
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/alleged-amanda-todd-tormenter-tracked-down-1.997244#ixzz29RTnJGS7
All that needs to be said HAS been said in the above comments.
People, we need NEW strategies to deal with all this. I am a relative newcomer to YouTube & the world of YouTube commenting, but after only several weeks of dealing with the likes of Amazing Atheist & the MRA, I can see the same action-response-action-response cycles have been going on for years.
They call for “reasoned debate”, but its just a waste of time, as through the likes of GirlWritesShit & Wanking Mr E, they’ve all learned to stop any discussion from getting past the first point, by endlessly calling up bogus rules of “Socratic Debate” , & infinitely challenging you with endless logistical nitpicking. Fuck it ! Don’t play by their rules. It’s not a “level playing field” to begin with.
We are right & don’t need to “prove” it. It’s not a televised debate. We won’t change their views & they won’t change ours.
As a start, I could make the following suggestions –
Find the good videos & “like” them. Don’t bother watching the shit (you know what they’re saying anyway, & every view gives them another “point”) but “dislike” it anyway. There are a few amazing asshole videos where the vote is so split that it could be tipped by just a few dozen people.
Encourage EVERYONE you know to do likewise (perhaps focusing on particular postings).
PLEASE leave messages of support on the good videos. Sometimes dozens of people have “liked” a Youtube video, but NONE of them have actually commented, leaving the comments boxes to be filled up only by the assholes. Imagine how this makes the video maker feel.
Make your own videos & get them out there.
Be CREATIVE – they can’t. Instead of leaving insults or offering “reasoned argument” to be endlessly nitpicked over – do something different. Reply by typing their comment backwards or ask them a zen koan, & that quickly stops them ranting their drivel. They’re thrown off script, & they don’t know what to do.
Finally, try to make links between each other & team up with like minded souls on the internet. So many people (myself included) seem to be working away at this alone, yet I get the impression that there are a great number of us who feel the same way.
I have been inspired to make a few little videos of my own, & would appreciate if people could watch them, “like” them & leave a comment (& if you want to work together, just say so & I’ll get right back to you). I don’t know jackshit about leaving “links” here (I’m very new to computers) but if you go to YouTube & type in “Feminism otherseed” the videos will come up. Being a newcomer, I need all the gracious support I can get, as I notice the haters get in quick.
I’m up for working with anyone, in any respect, in order to challenge all the internet misogyny.
“I’m pretty convinced that US culture particularly hates teenage girls. Make the kind of mistakes common to all people but really common with people your age, and one that only hurts yourself? You’re a pariah and deserve everything you get.”
Wordspinner, sadly this isn’t confined to the US. In the UK we recently had a case where a married 30-year-old teacher, Jeremy Forrest, had an affair with a 15-year-old pupil, which made the news when they ran away to France together. Being under 16 means she is not legally capable of consenting to go with him, so this is technically abduction and this is what Forrest has been charged with. This seems fairly straightforward and simple to understand, along with the idea that adults in positions of responsibility should not exploit the naive and hormonal lovestruck teenagers in their care, but look at most online news reports and you’ll see hundreds of depressing comments expressing sympathy for the poor defenceless man who was seduced by the wicked 15-year-old temptress, suggestions that she should be punished for what she did to the poor ickle man,and general creepiness, slut-shaming and victim-blaming.
Here we also have similar problems with topless photos being circulated on Facebook and elsewhere, and these being used for the purposes of blackmail. There’s a good article on it here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/sep/22/creepshots-revenge-porn-paparazzi-women
Like many of the commenters on this article I’m just glad I went to an all-girls’ school, and at a time before cameraphones were invented.
The Kittehs’ Unpaid Help: As soon as we found out his cancer was terminal, my dad left VERY specific instructions for what to do when he passed. They basically consisted of:
1) Have a party
2) A BIG party
3) Make everyone wear hawaiian shirts (the louder, the better) and leis
4) Provide lots of good booze and food
5) Play good music
It was pretty awesome. Having a party didn’t make it any easier to lose him, but being encouraged to remember the fun times made the first month or so a lot easier to bear.
I hate this guy, I really do. He reminds me way too much of a stalker I had in high school. Similar narcissism and sexism, same type of arguments, same radiating hatred, he even looks similar. He isn’t the same person, but boy they would make good friends.
This girl was a victim. She had no chance to become a survivor. That man and those bullies are her murderers as far as I’m concerned. It had nothing to do with whatever “mistake” she made. She didn’t “mess up”. A stalker and bullies happened to her. She didn’t invite them with “risky behaviour” anymore than a woman does by walking alone at night or by getting drunk. I’m so sick of articles framing it like this happened because of what she did, even if they’re otherwise well-meaning. THEY’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
Also, back up where I said “consensual”, I wasn’t aware at the time that it was a grown-ass man, and that he had coerced her into it. That just makes it worse. Not only was she bullied for being sexually assaulted, she was bullied for being sexually assaulted…that was a result of a previous sexual assault.
These past few months, Amanda Todd’s death has been one of way too fucking (sorry, David) many within these last few months, and I just…I can barely articulate how I feel about it. The anti-bullying stuff I’m a follower of on fb have been going into overdrive.
Yet sometimes it feels like all that we try and do to end all this, people like The Amazing Asshole (borrowing that one; it’s so fitting!), the slut-shamers, blamers and so fourth, just yell louder. That’s what really, really depresses me.
Amanda, RIP.
Some Grey Bloke just made a rather timely video mentioning TAA:
Curse this soundless computer! I’ll have to listen to this at home.
Don’t you see it?! God didn’t do this, facebook didn’t do this, WE did it. The people who ignored Amanda’s cries for help, the people who mock of her and just add to the pile, and the direct responsible for iniating all this, they do it.
Who here said that God did it, etc.?
Saying “facebook didn’t do this” is pretty strange given it’s people on these sites – and owners of sites who refuse to police them at all – who are responsible for this sort of thing.
>>They call for “reasoned debate”, but its just a waste of time, as through the likes of GirlWritesShit & Wanking Mr E, they’ve all learned to stop any discussion from getting past the first point, by endlessly calling up bogus rules of “Socratic Debate”
Yeah yeah, we all know he’s an arrogant asshole, but there’s another side to the Amazing Atheist. He’s also really stupid. His arguments are dishonest and fake.
Socrates never tried to pass off loaded strawman horseshit like this as “reasoned debate”
http://youtu.be/Rxz1kH1LI68
It isnt awful the way he responded to her. First off, she flashed the camera. Yes the bullying wasnt needed, but SHE FLASHED HER CHEST . SHE DIDNT RESPECT HERSELF, why don’t you people comprehend that? GET OFF THE DAMN BANDWAGON.
Eva, you’re saying she deserved to die because she flashed her chest? Congratulations on being a terrible human being.
“Amanda was 12 years old when she made a mistake that would haunt her until her death three years later.
Her ordeal started while she was fooling around online with friends. She probably didn’t think it was risky behaviour when she lifted her top to flash the person who was flattering her at the other end of the webcam.”
Three. Fucking. Years. That isn’t “well of course people commented on her boobs”, that’s continual harassment for years. And fuck, she was a teenager, shouldn’t this have counted as child porn and thus everyone who viewed it looked into and the video taken down and the whole thing gone hush hush in no time flat?
But wtf part of flashing a camera online makes harassing her in person acceptable?!
He truly is an evil man, isn’t he? He’s a complete sociopath that deserves nothing but an eternity of pain and suffering.
Nope, I’ve read that 3 times and it still makes no sense.
Who is “he”? Who are you? And what are you doing posting this nonsense on a months old thread?