The Amanda Todd Story: Cyberbullying Research
Teen ages are one of the most interesting periods of human life. Teenagers are a group of people whose age is in the range between 13–19. These people are characterized with the puberty, when both their bodies and mind are transformed from adolescents into adults. During this period, they are facing rapid mental and physical development. Sometimes the changes are so rapid that the person cannot deal with its emotions and is particularly sensitive to the opinions of others people. Any remarks and comments could be taken to heart, so the teenagers are prone to depressions and other mental diseases.
The Amanda Todd story is a sad example of such unstable teenager’s personality. According to Stefan (2016), this case changed the entire Canadian legislation about cyberbullying. The whole story started with the unobtrusive video chat, where Amanda tried to find new friends, but this chat with the stranger lead to serious blackmails and mental bullying that forced Amanda’s suicide. Without any doubt, this online bullying is the main reason for her suicide. The main type of bullying that Amanda Todd was subjected is cyber bullying. She showed her breast in the web-chat and this moment was captured by a stranger, who started to put pressure on Amanda and asked her for web-show instead of his silence about her intimate photos. The other type of bullying Amanda faced was social bullying by her friends and classmates that named her a real porn star or other humiliating nicknames after the publication of her photos.
Amanda Todd experienced a lot of negative consequences as a result of being bullied. Her first decision was to change schools, but after few attempts, she realized that changing schools is not a proper decision. In addition, she started to take antidepressants and other drugs to deal with her depression. The alcohol was another decision that Amanda believed would be effective for her.
Probably, Amanda’s friends, parents or school authorities could use some strategies to help Amanda with her problem and prevent her suicide. Her parents could be more involvement with her, talking about her problems and checking her phone and laptop. When the adolescents have a lack of parental attention they start different dangerous web-chats and other online connections. The school authority should realize that every school is a huge accumulation of teenagers with different mental problems, so the school should provide free assistance of a psychologist and help to arrange the post-school life of every student.
Unfortunately, bullying is a typical problem for every school and even colleges and universities around the country. Especially, youngsters are less tolerant to the children with dissimilarities. Sometimes, the color of the skin, the color of the hair and other features of appearance could be criticized by others. The main similarities between Todd’s case and my own experience are about the adolescent’s nature to ridicule different children. The other similarity is gossiping that is also a …
