I've no objection in principle to NDP Member of Parliament Dany Morin's motion this week to pursue a national bullying-prevention strategy. This proposal was conceived some months ago, but it is now widely mis-held to be an outcome of the suicide of 15-year-old Amanda Todd. You are doubtless familiar with her appalling and sad and outrageous story, which has been widely reported and which has now got many people talking about something called cyberbullying.
SLIDESHOW: AMANDA TODD REMEMBERED
I arrived late to the details of this young life cut short, but very quickly I was bothered by the pattern into which the news coverage invariably took form. In a week which was especially rich in news of men attacking girls and women, I was unable to find a single news source prepared to follow the evidence to its logical conclusion -- that Amanda Todd was the victim of male sexual violence, and that her subsequent treatment by peers disclosed the impossible double standards to which girls and women are held where sexual mores are concerned. (To be fair, these conclusions lie well beyond journalistic objectivity -- but I can't be the only one to have arrived at them.)
We are used to reading about the fate of females elsewhere who besmirch a presumed chastity, but here on display was the familiar and rank hypocrisy by which women are routinely sexualized and then attacked for their supposedly wanton ways. Bullying, I submit, is a euphemistic way of describing these attitudes, and perhaps even a changing of the subject.
It may be the case that Canada needs a cyberbullying law, and I don't mean to suggest that Amanda Todd was at no point in her life bullied. The initial crime against her however was sexual predation, and it was soon followed by the attempted crime of blackmail, in pursuit of further sexual exploitations. While the use of electronic social media in the commission of these crimes may warrant Criminal Code updates (and as I understand it, such is the approach of Liberal MP Hedy Fry's cyberbullying Bill C-273), neither pedophilia nor blackmail are beyond the reach of existing law.
Then there is the charge of physical assault, which again may be seen as an instance of bullying but which may be apprehended under existing legislation. This leaves for consideration the insults and injuries committed on Facebook, vile but also an extension of the sexual predation/blackmail crimes of a perpetrator who is still out there, somewhere, if only the (again, existing) law can get to him.
I suspect Mr. Morin is right to contrast the bullying he experienced, before the arrival of Internet social media, to the bullying now experienced by young people. His useful words will no doubt renew the vigilance of those of us with children, against not new types of crime but the ones we have always known to exist. In speaking of that which really is new, we should not drown ourselves in a sea of cyberjargon. There are perfectly good words for the ancient dangers and attitudes, and as I consider the sad case of Amanda Todd, it is these that I discern.
Carrie Armstrong: Saying the Unsaid
The creep that started her off is a predator and I hope that somewhere down the line, he gets nailed.
The girls were rotten too.
If any kids are reading this post, think about that young girl. You might not like them but that is no reas reason to ostracize them or, worse, beat them up or drive them to suicide.
Do you feel better now that she killed herself?.
If you don't like someone, just leave them alone.
Nobody is perfect.
Amanda's story made me sad. Whatever her errors were, she didn't deserve the abuse she endured.
Love your co-habitants on this earth.
They aren't perfect but neither are you.
peace,
p
The public response to the horrible violation of Katherine Middleton was overwhelmingly to go and read these crappy publications and endorse this demoralizing behaviour by gawking at these pictures and defending this as some sort of journalistic freedom!
This is the world the bullies live in: One that teaches them to see women of every stripe as objects worthy of no respect, to violate and mock as they please.
We only really seem to notice it's bad when somebody dies.
Innate? Learned? Taught? All semantics as it exists and will continue to exist until we...
A) Learn to stop bullying.
B) Learn to stop being victims.
A) Tragedies like this young girls death will continue because no piece of legislation nor any amount of parental control will ever protect a human from the realities one faces when they step outside their door (or log onto the internet). Caution and CONFIDENCE are more valuable lessons to teach a child than installing monitoring software on your pre-teens Mac.
B) Bullies pray on those they perceive as weaker than themselves. From the playground to the parliament, same concept. If we as a nation, a society, a species hope to move forward, this systemic behavior referred to as "BULLYING" must be addressed and the only sure fire way to do this is the address the elephant in the room.
Countries bully each other. Politicians bully each other (and us). Business FEEDS off of it. Our entertainment reeks of bullying, our national sports are saturated with it. You cannot simply sanitize these systems. We as a people need to instill confidence and teach our youth the strength and emotional/spiritual freedom which accompanies self actualization. Hiding our children away from the terrors of this world breeds a generation of victims, teaching them ways to protect themselves creates a generation with life experience and self respect.
Through self respect we all learn respect for others.
There are a few things about this story aside from the disturbing death of this beautiful young woman that continue to disturb me..
1. After the topless photo incident why did her parents continue to allow her to maintain a visible internet presence knowing that a potential stalker was watching her online activities?
2. A month before her death she published that call for help video on Youtube, why did her parents not know about this video?
3. Why did the Police not pursue this case after the photos were downloaded? You would think that they could have set up a sting operation to catch this guy.
Trying not to walk in the parents shoes. I have no idea what thy are going through right now. But I
Tracking programs for children is a great way to see what your kids are doing online. Some of you civil rights advocates might disagree, but in my mind my children have no internet civil rights while I am raising them. I will be aware of what they are doing on the internet!
I have to wonder if Facebook and certain internet activities are really helping our children these days..
bullying starts at the top and the governmnt is the worst bulliers.
sexual violence, i dont think so...stop demoralizing and see it for what it is...
harassment
In my humble opinion, the system failed Todd miserably and regardless of any new bullying laws there will continue to be victims if people do not take these matters seriously and apply said laws.
Poor article.
This man than proceeded to follow through with his threat and followed her from school to school.
You will hear no argument from me on the viciousness of females they can take bullying to a level that is both physical and mental
However the fact that this girl was threatened with blackmail after the picture was taken should have made the police do more than notify the family it was happening. Pathetic that the perverts will only be caught due to public outrage
Ultimately, she was bullied and harassed by a sexual predator. That this was sexual predation is clear...and the bullying was just one of the forms it took.