Le 10 octobre 2012, la jeune canadienne Amanda Todd se suicide après plusieurs années de harcèlement anonyme sur Internet. Judith Bruhn décrit cette affaire choquante.
Exposition des faits
A l’âge de 12 ans, Amanda Todd s’inscrit sur un site de rencontres où elle fait la connaissance d’un homme de trente ans qui la flatte et la convainc de lui dévoiler sa poitrine. L’homme prend alors une photo de ses seins qu’il fait circuler parmi les amis, la famille, les camarades et les voisins de la jeune fille. Cette dernière déménage et change d’école, mais l’homme continue à la suivre et à la harceler. D’autres élèves de l’école s’en prennent à leur tour à la jeune fille et l’attaquent physiquement. Suite a cela, Amanda commence à avoir des attaques de panique, elle se mutile et tente de se suicider à plusieurs reprises. Le 7 septembre 2012, Amanda, alors âgée de 15 ans, publie sur YouTube une vidéo de 9 minutes en écrivant sur des fiches cartonnées son histoire, les harcèlements subis, les attaques. Le 10 octobre de la même année, elle se suicide.
reply report Report comment
“How many girls have to kill themselves before society realizes that cyber bullying leads to suicide.” Over the past years we have seen many incidents of suicide attempts due to cyber bullying. Yet some of us claim that bullying (in the sense of freedom of expression) should be protected under the 1st amendment. This philosophy is however a drastically ignorant approach to a matter that can have a deeper impact on a person’s mental and physical state than anticipated. In the case of Amanda Todd, physical and cyber harassment were tools used to drive her into suicide. We believe that this would not have happened if the extent of the verbal abuse could have been limited by the school regulations and public laws. In cases like these speech and hate speech must be differentiated and dealt with accordingly. Reflecting upon that statement, we are highly convinced and fully invested in the thought that Amanda Todd would have seen another day, if the hostility and malevolence of her classmates would have been confronted and address as harmful and as a criminal offence.
reply report Report comment
It is really a shocking news. Cyber bullying is one of the major problems for kids as they are exposed to different social media websites. Internet safety for kids are indeed these days and parental control programs helps protecting kids. I also use a parental control program for my kid’s safety.
reply report Report comment
What a terrible news!
This is not only about the privacy, but the right to life. To protect users from cyber-bullying is a key topic that administrators must concentrate on.
Free speech is consist of rights to speak and the protection of personal reputation.