March 28, 2024

Todd’s ‘rallying point’ video helps her story reach the world, expert says

Amanda Todd’s tragic story has caught the world’s attention like no other.

Her heart-wrenching YouTube video about being bullied has helped her story to be picked up in the U.S., the U.K. and even as far away as Japan – where bullying is also a big problem.  

Vigils have been planned locally for Maple Ridge and Surrey, but also as far away as Calgary, Halifax, California and Ohio.

Amanda’s mother says talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has even reached out to her.

The 15-year-old is not the first teen suicide to gain notoriety.

But cyber bulling expert Julia Hengstler says Amanada put her own face and name out there, in the same medium in which she was bullied. So, she says, the video has become a sort of rallying point.

“Amanda Todd’s video has sort of drawn a cyber line in the sand that has reached out and said, ‘This is so in your face now. You need to do something about it, and what are you doing to do?’

Hengstler says just as Amanda couldn’t get away from her online tormentors, society now cannot ignore her story.

“It was just a cry for help for her,” says Hengstler. “It was a cry for help for, I think, her generation, and saying, you know, ‘Look at me. We need help. We need help in dealing with how to be in technology, how to use these technologies and even to come back to common values on how to be with each other.”

CKNW Vancouver News

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