No dia 10 de Outubro de 2012 a adolescente canadense Amanda Todd cometeu suicídio após sofrer anos de cyber-bullying e assédio. Judith Bruhn descreve um caso surpreendente.
O caso
Aos 12 anos de idade Amanda Todd se registrou em um site que usava a webcam em conversas, onde ela encontrou um homem de 30 anos que a ‘cantou’ e ‘bajulou’ até que ela a mostrasse seus seios. O homem tirou foto dos seus seios e a circulou entre os amigos da garota, sua família, em sua escola e entre os vizinhos. O homem continuou a perseguindo e assediando mesmo depois de ela mudar de escola e de casa. Como resultado, outros jovens de sua escola também a atacaram e a agrediram. Amanda desenvolveu ataques de pânico, começou a se machucar e tentou se suicidar várias vezes durante os anos. Em sete de setembro de 2012, Amanda, então com 15 anos de idade, postou um vídeo de nove minutos no youtube, usando pequenos cartazes para contar a sua história de perseguição, bullying e agressões. No dia dez de outubro do mesmo ano, ela tirou a própria vida.
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“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.
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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.
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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.