Amanda Todd
A screenshot of Todd's YouTube video
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| Date | October 10, 2012 |
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| Location | Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada |
| Cause | Unknown |
| Inquest | British Columbia Coroners Service |
| Coroner | Barb McLintock |
| Suspect(s) | Aydin Coban |
| Charges | Indecent assault and child pornography (Netherlands) |
On October 10, 2012, Amanda Michelle Todd (November 27, 1996 – October 10, 2012), a 15-year-old Canadian girl, committed suicide at her home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. Prior to her death, Todd had posted a video on YouTube in which she used a series of flash cards to tell her experience of being blackmailed into exposing her breasts via webcam, and of being bullied and physically assaulted. The video went viral after her death, resulting in international media attention. The video has had more than 12 million views as of February 2017. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and British Columbia Coroners Service launched investigations into the suicide.
In response to the death, Christy Clark, the Premier of British Columbia, made an online statement of condolence and suggested a national discussion on criminalizing cyberbullying. Also, a motion was introduced in the Canadian House of Commons to propose a study of the scope of bullying in Canada, and for more funding and support for anti-bullying organizations. Todd's mother Carol established the Amanda Todd Trust, receiving donations to support anti-bullying awareness education and programs for young people with mental health problems.
On September 7, 2012, Todd posted a 9-minute YouTube video entitled My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self-harm, which showed her using a series of flashcards to tell of her experiences being bullied. The video post went viral after her death on October 10, 2012, receiving over 1,600,000 views by October 13, 2012, with news websites from around the world linking to it.
During the video, Todd writes that when she was in grade 7 (2009/2010), around the same time she moved in with her father, she used video chat to meet new people over the Internet and she received compliments on her looks. A stranger convinced Todd to bare her breasts on camera (an exploitive phenomenon known as "capping", short for screen capturing), following one year of attempts at having her do so. The individual later blackmailed her with threats of providing the topless photo to her friends unless she gave him a "show"; she also featured briefly, albeit circumstantially, on the faux animated news show Daily Capper on BlogTV in an incident which attracted the vigilante attentions of the group Anonymous after her suicide. An episode of Daily Capper which attempted to take the moral high ground, very different in tone from their usual exploitative material, was released a month after her death.
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