Amanda Todd

**Amanda Michelle Todd** (November 27, 1996 - October 10, 2012) was a Canadian girl who committed suicide due to bullying and blackmailing in 2012. Her death because infamous due to uploading a video a month prior to her suicide discussing her mental-health struggles.

## Early Life

Amanda Todd was born on November 27th, 1996 in British Columbia, Canada to her parents, who later divorced. Amanda lived with her mother at first, but later went to live with her father.

Amanda was a big fan of music and singing, and wanted to be good in singing like her idol, Justin Bieber. She uploaded videos of herself singing covers on websites, and wanted to get a webcam to upload and talk on various webcam websites. At first, her mother was hesitant, she was worried that if Amanda got a webcam, she’d be taken advantage of, and she was worried over the safety of her daughter. Amanda was upset, and went to ask her father, who thought the camera was like a stage for Amanda to preform.

Amanda struggled to make friends at school, and would be made fun of. She was later diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Disorder (ADD), which made it harder for her to fit in with her peers. When she bought a webcam and started to post on sites such as BlogTV, she found people she became friends with, and she felt happy with everyone she was around with. She felt like a different person online then how she was in person.

## Blackmailing

When Amanda was in 7th grade, (2009-2010) she began using video chat using her webcam, and preform and sing to people who wanted to see her. She received many positive comments and compliments on her look which made her feel good about herself, and she started to post even more. But, Amanda did receive a message on a particular live stream she was doing, asking if she could flash her breasts, which she did. The anonymous person ended up screenshooting the image, and sent it to her mother. The screen-shotter later started to blackmail her, threatening that they’d send the photos to her entire school if she didn’t comply with that they wanted, and they asked her to preform 3 shows, and the images would disappear. Amanda was scared, she didn't know what to do, but she thought it was a cruel joke, and ignored it. On Christmas 2010, police went to Amanda’s home, informing her family that the image of her was circulating everywhere.

Amanda was depressed, she was made fun of by the students at her school, calling her a whore and a slut. She started to self-harm, and take drugs and alcohol to cope with the pain. She was later switched to another school. Amanda’s parents kept calling the police about the blackmailing, but unfortunately police didn’t do much to help, only advising Amanda to ignore the messages and stay off the internet, and for a while, it worked. But, in around 2011, the blackmailer reappeared and added Amanda on Facebook, posing as a student from her school, later changing their profile picture to the image of Amanda flashing her breasts. They made remarks saying how they sent the image of her to around “280 peeps”, and all her new classmates. Amanda's parents were in constant contact with the police, giving them ways they could catch their daughter's blackmailer, but the police never went out of their way to help out as much.

Amanda had to switch for another time due to her being bullied again, and she started to talk to one of her old friends, who invited her over to his house. They ended up having sex while the friend’s girlfriend was on vacation. She felt genuinely happy, feeling safe around her friend, and that someone truly loved her. The following week, the girlfriend and 15 other people confronted Amanda, shouting and screaming at her, and the girlfriend subsequently started to beat her up, with people chanting on. Amanda ran away, and hid in a ditch where her father later found her. After being assaulted, Amanda tried to kill herself by drinking bleach, and was taken to the hospital after the suicide attempt. People still taunted her, saying that she deserved to die, and were upset over the fact she survived her suicide attempt.

## Death

After Amanda was hospitalized, her family moved to start afresh in March of 2012. Unfortunately, Amanda wasn’t able to escape the blackmailer. Whenever she would move, the blackmailer would pop-up posing as a friend, and sent her image to everyone in her new school. She still received torment and horrible messages, causing her mental health to worsen more and to self-harm again. She was prescribed anti-depressants, which she overdosed on but survived. Amanda couldn’t escape bullying from her new classmates, and they mocked her because of her low marks and performance at school. Amanda’s mother described how she would always go to therapy and counseling, starting to improve, only for her to go back to her depressed state after being made fun of. In September 2012, Amanda uploaded a video on Youtube, talking about her battle with bullying and mental health. Amanda replied to a comment on the video, saying that she’ll keep her head up, and that she’ll be planning on getting a tattoo in November, saying that she’ll look at it, and it’ll motivate her to keep moving forward,

October 10, 2012 would mark the last day of her life, though. Amanda was found hanging in her mother’s house. She was one-month-shy of her 16th birthday at the time of her suicide. Her death became international, with police asking for leads about her blackmailer. 9 days after her death, a candle light vigil was held to honor her life. She was buried on November 18, 2012, and over 600 people attended her funeral. She was also cremated, and the tattoo that Amanda planned to get was given to her father, with her ashes mixed with the ink.

## Aftermath

After Amanda's suicide, police upped their investigation to find the blackmailer, and they later identified a Dutch man in connection not only with Amanda's case, but with several other black-mailings of teenagers online. At the time of Amanda's blackmailing, police in Norway were investigating him regarding a blackmailing of a teenage girl, where she was being threatened with explicit photos of her. They were able to trace him with Facebook, but police never followed up on it, only doing so after Amanda's suicide.

The man was identified as Aydin Coban, and he had blackmailed many other girls, using the same method similar to Amanda's case. Police arrested him in April 2014, with a charge of child pornography, but he claimed his innocence, saying that he never even spoke to Amanda, and never blackmailed young girls. He was later extradited in December 2020 to face charges regarding Amanda's case, and his trial started on June 6, 2022. Later on August 5, he was found guilty on all charges, and on October 14, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He showed no remorse regarding the case during all of this time, and he still proved his innocence, saying that the police were charging the wrong man.