Cyber Bullying

Cyber bullying can have tragic consequences, as this story of a young girl who took her own life after being harassed online illustrates.

In September 2010, 14-year-old Amanda Todd of British Columbia, Canada, posted a video on YouTube in which she used a series of flash cards to tell her experience of being blackmailed into exposing her breasts via webcam, and of being bullied online and at school. In the video, Todd said that she had been addicted to alcohol and drugs and had been sexually assaulted. She said that she had been bullied since the age of 11, when a boy she had a crush on circulated a topless photo of her. The video went viral, and Todd became the subject of intense online bullying. On October 10, 2012, Todd committed suicide at her home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Her death sparked international outrage and brought attention to the problem of cyber bullying.