amanda (so hard to figure out a 'title' for this)

[madchives]

from the amount of news (not sure about the twitter/facebook posts)
i'd hope there maybe a wakeup call to these kids.
can they not do that 'walk a mile in my shoes'?
but guessing it is hard for them to notice how wicked it can be.

and when they do they don't seem to understand death,,,

[DaveP]

from the amount of news (not sure about the twitter/facebook posts)
i'd hope there maybe a wakeup call to these kids.
can they not do that 'walk a mile in my shoes'?
but guessing it is hard for them to notice how wicked it can be.

and when they do they don't seem to understand death,,,

It's true teens can be clueless, I know, I was one. But to be that clueless you can't have been raised right.

[Lynn49]

I sometimes struggle knowing whether my 5 and 6 year olds understand some of the lessons I'm trying to teach them. I wonder if all the talking I do really is understood. The can't read very well yet and I'm sure they wouldn't really understand the moral behind this even if they could. So instead I actually had them do it...and for my kids at least I think it made a larger impact than just my "lecturing" them about it did. I volunteer 2 days a week in my 5 year olds kindergarten class and already see some kids using words and behaviours that in an older child would be considered bullying and yet at this age I don't think the offending child actually understands the power their words and actions have on others. Again, I don't know that telling them they are being hurtful has enough impact. Sometimes with the younger kids doing something like this, as well as talking to them about it, has more of an impact...at least I believe it does.

Jaybird....I see where you're coming from...I doubt that the word "bullying" has much impact on kids, since their understanding of that word isn't fully developed, but they certainly can understand the words "hurting someone's feelings", judging by our 4-year old grandson. He's said, "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, Mom, it was all my fault...."...and is genuinely upset when he says that, since he's crying about some incident where he didn't get his way and threw a hissy-fit.
Perhaps the word, "bullying" has lost its impact...perhaps just not being hurtful towards someone else ... 'doing unto others' may be more widely understood. Bullying can take many forms; being hurtful can encompass them all....
jmho....

[Lynn49]

It's true teens can be clueless, I know, I was one. But to be that clueless you can't have been raised right.

Your post reminds me of an incident our DD related to me yesterday...she, her hubby and our grandson were grocery shopping, and she met an acquaintance and started chatting....WELL! She said the language he used in front of his own 5-year old, nevermind their 4-year old was unbelievable! Not in an angry fashion, but it just seems like this was the way he talked! She said she could understand if the person was single, no kids, and sometimes words slip out, but nothing like this dad!!
You've got to wonder what people are thinking....or more to the point: not thinking.
I can imagine the mouth on this kid before too long!
Raised properly? Not so much......

[mcminsen]

I think there are still a lot of great kids and young people out there that have been raised right and they can be a big part of a solution. But, they need a lot of back up from parents, teachers and school administrators. A lot of obnoxious and hurtful behaviour goes unchallenged and then the bullies get so strident, knowing that they can get away with it. The blowback one risks from challenging a bully can be huge.

And in today's world you can be a troll of the worst variety with little or no consequences. Here's an interview with an Amanda troll in the Vancouver Sun:

http://www.vancouversun.com/technolo...495/story.html

[DiamondLil]

I agree the boy and the girls that posted that if she reads this I hope she kills herself should be held accountable.. they should be charged. But the boy thats distributing photos of her topless and using it as his profile picture - cant he be charged with distributing child ography???

[DaveP]

.

[Dee09]

This is just so terrible and tragic. And there should be charges; there have been similar cases as it is spreading child .

[Darth Penguin]

Hackers say they've found Amanda Todd's tormentor

A group of hackers say they have tracked down a man they say is Amanda Todd’s tormenter.
The “hacktivists” are part of the group Anonymous and say they have found a man in his early 30s from New Westminster, B.C., who allegedly blackmailed the 15-year-old girl for pictures over the Internet.


Anonymous, named one of the most influential people of the year by Time Magazine, posted the man’s name on the text-storing website Pastebin. “At the most this is the person who did this to Amanda Todd and at the least it’s another pedophile,” their post said. The hackers have also released a video on YouTube.

[TaraF]

It's incredibly sad, and the problem as I see it, is that this generation of youth that are being raised, the majority of them are spoiled brats that get everything they want. Their parents want to be their friend first and their parent second, they are pretty much left to their own devices to entertain themselves and have no real structure. Many are quite selfish. Many bully for the sheer "amusement" of it, many because they are bored and many because they just don't realize it's wrong because their parents aren't there parenting them.

It isn't one thing and there is no easy solution, but what I'd LIKE to see is a law enacted that criminalizes "cyber bullying". Just because you are sitting behind a computer screen it shouldn't give you carte blanche to terrorize someone without fear of consequence.

[Darth Penguin]

Ontario Man fired over comment posted on Amanda's memorial page

In an exclusive interview with the Toronto Star, Hutchings said he was curious and wanted to “stir up the pot.”
“It was more or less a social experiment than anything. Just to see if I could put the most blasphemous thing on there,” he said Tuesday.
“I did this because if there was so much caring and so much emphasis on the fact that people actually care now that she’s dead, then how come society didn’t step in when she was alive?”

or sociall experiment or troll being caught out???

[Andit]

I was never bullied (I was teased by classmates, but I simply teased back - no one was as annoying as my Father could be with the non-stop teasing, so I suppose I was immune to that), so I can't speak to that aspect.

But I do question why the police were never called in - stalking, child , at the very least it seems a restraining order of some sort seemed in order?

And I agree with Tara in that the current generation needs to learn to toughen up a bit. I'll never forget an interview last year with an Occupy Toronto enthusiast who lamented his lack of a job - of course, he told the reporter that an entry level job was beneath him, he had a university degree so was owed a job in management. Sigh.

[Darth Penguin]

Am I odd* in that I never wanted to be a friend to either my parents or my children?

To me the idea of a freind is some-one you are comfortable talking about the kind of things you wouldn't discuss with parents or my children. apeer rather than a family member...

* well, more than normally odd!