Amanda Todd’s YouTube Video on Struggling, Bullying, Suicide and Self Harm-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
This is a YouTube video that is circulating the Internet allegedly by a 15 year old girl called Amanda Todd. She tells how someone on the Internet coaxed her into flashing her chest in a webcam session and how the events that followed led to depression, addiction and her suicide.
The Truth:
The YouTube video is real according to an October 12, 2012 news article by ABC News Nightline.
The article said, “Amanda Todd, 15, posted the video called ‘My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm’ on Sept. 7 and was found dead in her home town of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just over a month later.” The article also said that Todd had been coaxed by a stranger on the internet to flash her chest via webcam. After about a year of prompting by the stranger she eventually gave in and the events that followed escalated into a teen’s nightmare. A photo of the session was posted on the Internet and someone contact her though Facebook threatening her that if she did not “put on a show” that the photo would be released.
The article went on to say, “Over Christmas break, Todd said police came to her house at 4 a.m. to tell her that the photo had been sent to everyone. ‘I then got really sick and got anxiety, major depression and panic disorders,’ she wrote. ‘I then moved and got into drugs and alcohol.'”
The cyber-bullies followed her move to a new school in another city and eventually the attacks not only came from the Internet but also from her new classmates who prompted her to find another school.
The article said that in the early evening of October 10th law enforcement were called to a home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, “to investigate the sudden death of the tormented teenager.” Investigators found no evidence of foul play but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have yet to rule her death a suicide.
updated 10/15/12