El 10 de octubre de 2012, la adolescente canadiense Amanda Todd se suicidó luego de años de intimidación y acoso cibernético. Judith Bruhn describe un impactante caso.
El caso
A la edad de 12 años, Amanda Todd accedió a un sitio de video chat donde conoció a un hombre de 30 años que la halagó hasta que ella mostró sus senos. El hombre tomó una foto de sus senos y la hizo circular entre los amigos, familia, escuela y vecinos de la adolescente. El hombre continuó acosando e intimidando a la joven, a pesar de que la adolescente cambió de escuela y se mudó de casa. Otros alumnos de su escuela la intimidaron y acosaron como resultado de ello. Amanda tuvo ataques de pánico, comenzó a infligirse lesiones e intentó cometer suicidio varas veces durante esos años. El 7 de septiembre de 2012, Amanda, para entonces de 15 años, publicó un video de 9 minutos en YouTube, donde utilizó “flash cards” (tarjetas de memoria) para contar su historia de cómo había sido acosada, intimidada y atacada. El 10 de octubre del mismo año, cometió suicidio.
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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.