The story of Amanda Todd was heartbreaking to watch and read about it. Amanda Todd was a girl who met a man online and due to the way, he made her feel, she felt as if she could trust him, and she showed him vulnerable pictures of herself. That one picture started a catalyst of the depression, anxiety and bullying she would face due to harassment and stalking of her online. Unfortunately, it all got too much, and she committed suicide.
“The founding myth of the Internet was its offer of a way to escape physical reality; the freedom to shape yourself, to say anything, became a sort of sacred object”, instead it has brought a lot of pain to people’s lives, especially young people (3). This quote from the article about Amanda Todd stood out because of how harmful the internet has become to individuals these days. People can see almost anything online and young individuals are always curious; they do not know the dangers that can come from the internet. At young ages, children can be exposed to sexual content that can become traumatic for them. Or they could be exposed to trends or challenges that are not safe for their health and lead to fatal consequences. In Amanda Todd’s case and so many other cases, it could lead to severe bullying online and offline. One of the reasons there is so much cyberbullying is because people feel as if they have so much more freedom online to say whatever they want. They hide behind their computer screens saying horrible things, that some of them would probably never say in front of a person’s face. It is as If these individuals do not realize how harmful words can be.
The internet can be a dangerous place especially when interacting with people that you have only seen through a screen profile. There are many stories of minors speaking to random people on the internet. An example is an app, Omegle, where so many minors have used it to communicate with random people. It seems fun and harmless, but these adolescents don’t know how much harm one conversation can come from it. Stories like Amanda Todd’s show that there needs to be more parental guidance when it comes to monitoring what minors do on the internet. We need to prevent them from putting themselves in a harmful situation and prevent themselves from starting a harmful situation for others. Not only should parents, teachers and other authority figures protect their children, but they should also make sure that their children know why bullying is wrong and teach them to not engage in those actions. I think it’s important to figure out what leads children to bully others, and work on that too. Lastly, there needs to be better cyber protection software and laws to help these difficult situations.
It’s crazy to think how attached one can become to someone they meet online, especially those who lack social connections in their real lives. This situation reminded me a lot of one of my favorite shows, Catfish. Each episode centers around a different person who has been speaking romantically with another person online for a long time (sometimes even 10 years), all without ever seeing their face. The hosts then investigate to find out who really is the person behind the photos, and then facilitate an in-person meet-up between the two. Watching these episodes, it’s easy to think “are these people insane?” How are people able to form such intense bonds — sometimes even sending money and explicit photos — with people they’ve never seen? Even so, it just goes to show the dangers of the internet. As you mentioned, it is so important for children to become more aware of these potential predators, and to only engage with people who they have met in person.
I also agree that the internet these days is incredibly impressionable. Especially because the new generation is one of the first that only hasn’t grown up without the internet or social media platforms, they are getting on these platforms earlier and earlier in life. Since there is no “guide” or “step by step” way of how to navigate the internet, this can lead people down really dangerous paths. I remember hearing about the Amanda Todd story and it is incredibly heartbreaking to think that she is not the only victim of this harassment and cyberbullying and predation from others online. From these dangerous tik tok trends to the app Omegle that you mentioned in your post, there really is no way to stop young people from finding these things. Especially in the United States, I think we take for granted our ability to freely roam online but don’t always recognize the consequences. I do agree that there needs to be better cyber protection software and better monitoring of sites but I’m worried that this may not be as feasible due to how our country operates and the freedoms we are granted. Do lessons like these need to be taught more often in schools?
There is certainly a dangerous side to the internet, which is sometimes disguised as a safe space for things to be shared. There are all sorts of vulnerable populations that pay the price of this. It is so upsetting that there are many victims of online manipulation, many of whom are maybe insecure and needing validation. I even think about the times we have had to cancel my grandpa’s credit card after she falls for advertisements on apps like candy crush that trick her into providing her credit card information. It is really upsetting how frequently the vulnerable populations are preyed on by people online.
I can resonate with all these commented examples of populations being manipulated via social media. I think of Omegle, which my friends and I had always seen as a harmless website. We truly thought that everything was anonymous and would be erased, which in reality is never the case. It is terrifying to think that someone could have been tracking my IP address or collecting my data when I was a younger female doing this. With younger populations now on Tiktok, I think there is more room for children to fall victim of predator behavior on the internet. Children do not automatically get a ‘sensored feed’ and could stumble upon a creep trying to tack advantage of minors mentally and physically.