The Sextortion of Amanda Todd - the fifth estate

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hey guys it's manna I'm saying something like you Amanda Todd the BC teen driven to death haunted by one revealing photo tonight we tell you the story you never heard about what really happened to her the blackmail the sexual extortion that could happen to any teenager on the Internet they are young girls they're naive and they're trusting they're not expecting that there's a person on my list who's out to extort me the friends who watched her struggle she knew that she did something wrong she also knew that there's nothing that she could do Erica so like the damage was done the other woman who battled her blackmailer and won I didn't want that computer in my room that computer is help we go deep into Amanda's world of never-seen-before videos and online chats her story in her own words how important is it to you to find out who did this to your daughter if I had one dying wish that would be it find out who started all this thank you hi I'm mark Kelly and welcome to the show you know there's a good chance right now someone close to you your child niece or neighbor is online and may be about to make a mistake they will regret we've all made mistakes and it used to be in due time they were forgotten but in the age of the internet there are online predators who can make sure you pay for a mistake for the rest of your life that's what happened to Amanda Todd while many remember her as a victim of cyber bullying tormented by her classmates which she was she was also the target of an online network of sexual extortionists tonight you'll see her as you've never seen her before her life her struggles and the story of the blackmail that drove her to her death this is the untold story of the sextortion of Amanda Todd [Music] for most people this is how they remember Amanda Todd this video made by the BC teen in her bedroom and posted on YouTube back in September 2012 it's been viewed almost twenty-eight million times it was a cry for help and a cry for attention from her flashing her breasts online to the blackmail and bullying that ensued triggering a fatal freefall [Music] her story starts in Port Coquitlam a trim and tidy town just east of Vancouver the kind of place where parents want to raise their kids a place that feels familiar and safe a place where Amanda Todd would learn all about life it was here she took gymnastics played hockey learned how to sing and dance like most parents Carol Todd wanted to keep her daughter busy and out of trouble she was spirited she was creative painfully shy at times in her life she was just this normal child who took great pains to drive her parents crazy as any typical child Amanda's parents split when she was young but she remained close to her mother and her father norm she's a great little kid she was a firecracker she had a lot of spunk in her she just wanted everything in life and challenged life and she wanted to grow up really fast and have it all and so she definitely kept everybody on their toes but as Amanda grew her mother said so did her complexities she was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder revealing her vulnerabilities to an often unforgiving world kids would laugh at her so she compensate in other ways by making jokes or she would just compensate but it wasn't always to her benefit because kids would laugh at what she said and so then eventually she would become quieter and she developed anxieties I could always tell when she was anxious because she would wring her hands Amanda may have been awkward in groups but on camera she came alive she began recording videos and this one she's just nine years old later she began posting the videos on the Internet the girl had a goal she wanted to be famous she loved the technology because she was successful at it and she could make things she made little videos she's learned how to tape herself and sing and then she learned how to post them on YouTube if you want to understand any kid that age look at what they're doing online that's what we did with Amanda this is her well-worn laptop she wrote love notes on the keyboard her parents gave the fifth estate two of her computers with their permission we unlocked them and deeply embedded on the hard drive we found hundreds of chat logs from the girl known online as cutie lover [Music] entering grade seven at Pitt River middle school would change everything for thirteen year old Amanda this is where she would begin her journey into adolescence and some dangerous territory boys right you know you're cute give me your phone number I think she focused on on the attention that they were giving her in the wrong ways but then when boys are paying attention to a girl then the other girls get upset and so often she couldn't handle it amanda was always trying to fit in with the popular crowd and be a big part of everything and sometimes it got her into trouble and trouble was easy to find online Amanda's life started moving at the speed of the Internet though she was focusing on her singing videos people online started focusing on her you never had the concern that as she's putting herself out there that there is anything dark going on she asked for a webcam and I said no that a child does not need a webcam of any kind especially a 12 year old girl and she and I probably argued the point right and you lost I lost she moved in with her dad norm he didn't see the webcam as a danger far from it he thought the webcam was like a stage where she could perform how hard did that make it for you to be able to police what your daughter was doing online we'd get her password I'd go under computer sometimes and you could look and see what she's been doing it yeah it always leaves a trail and so I poked in on things and check on things and there was a lot of chat and things between her friends and the night but like most teens Amanda's chat logs reveals she was trying to stay one step ahead of her dad my dad will say bedtime and I'll close the laptop and when he closes my door I'll be back [Music] amanda seemed to be getting transfixed by her image on the screen watch in this video as she stares endlessly at herself on her webcam and when she found websites with other people on webcams she would discover it wasn't just kids staring back Amanda's friends Shila and Tessa remember the late night sleepovers and how that webcam became their window on a whole new world what was going on in the internet like I don't know Facebook a lot like blog TV tell me about blog TV well you're supposed to like chat like with like other strangers around the world like your age and stuff and like and I just meet new people hi I'm Andrea hey everyone websites like blog TV were and still are wildly popular with kids with webcams and free time on their hands some sing some seek advice a question what else should go on this picture some perform and others don't seem to know what to do [Music] it's a place where people can meet how old are you ladies and move on but there's also a dark backdrop to the glare of that webcam what point things get a little you know edge year like weird yeah it's like I guess like creepy people go on the website like older people and they like want to talk to the younger people those creepy people she talked about wanted more than just to talk to the girls they wanted to see them in the flesh some girls needed to be coaxed while others willingly played along exploring their own budding sexuality either way there was a growing online appetite and audience for girls who like to perform like Amanda aka cutie lover [Music] for many kids the Internet is an endless popularity contest where popularity is measured in how many likes or views you're getting and Amanda was keeping a close count was she happy online yeah people would watch her and like she'd get a lot of use yeah but is that part of the appeal though isn't it people watching and it's like a new group of friends yeah and not them only knowing what you're like telling them he can sort of get a different version of yourself yeah you can edit yourself amanda was attracting more attention according to chat logs one day she was on her webcam with more than 150 people watching her on blogtv she then made a decision that would haunt her forever amanda lifted her shirt and flash for the camera and the crowd then someone captured a freeze-frame of her topless and posted the picture on a porn site then a link to that picture was sent to all of Amanda's Facebook friends including her mother what was your reaction when you saw that in front of your eyes it was one of those oh my god kind of moments like what's happening and why is this here and where is it going and why isn't why is it on a site like this in the flash of a few seconds her impulsive gesture was immortalized on a porn site available to anyone online anywhere and for Amanda the consequences came quickly one of her friends told her parents about the picture and they called the police the RCMP tracked down Amanda at her father's house the police said they wanted to make sure she was safe my reaction was worried what are you thinking what are you doing where's it coming from she played it off that she was goofing around to her it wasn't a huge big deal but it was a big deal and about to get bigger there are men who troll websites looking for pictures like Amanda's they are blackmailers who contact the girls and demand more pictures or online performances from them it was Christmas Eve 2010 and Carol received an eerie anonymous Facebook message warning her amanda was being extorted she needs to be stopped because most of them are old guys who record her and blackmail her into doing more Carol replied who are you also where did you get your information from this is now a police matter but how much of a matter was it for the police it wasn't clear what if anything they were doing to track down the blackmailer Carol remembers the impact on Amanda when she returned to school as the girl in the picture embarrassment anxiety depression she got I guess the name is slut-shamed so you know nicknames like camwhore and then questions about so are you doing this on a regular basis and porn star and and it just you know for a child that's in grade seven it was a very killed her this is how Amanda described it in one of the chats we found on her laptop there are people out there that can't talk to me or they will be hated I never got the chance to go out of my house and be a real normal person instead now all I do is hide I'm always scared of what's going to happen Amanda confided in her friend Sheila and Tessa telling them she'd flashed only once she knew that she did something wrong she also knew that there's nothing that she could do anymore because like the damage was done do you think it was such a big deal what she did look not really like I didn't think you would I didn't think it was like that being like I'm just gonna be well like just wait a couple months like you're all aware off your dad like you know but it didn't die down no it got worse school became unbearable so Amanda changed schools but she couldn't outrun the blackmailer in the spring of 2011 Amanda and Carol were in the car together when Amanda said he's back she'd received another threat demanding more webcam shows Carol took Amanda's phone and not message and drove to the local RCMP detachment looking for help this was the second time in six months police had been notified about the blackmail police would be notified again this time by staff at her new school that been sent Amanda's topless picture and they told the police but the police still had no news for the toddfamily [Music] that left Amanda to defend herself online her messages reveal there was an insatiable appetite for her to show more this time from a guy named Joe her parents told her to stay away from the site's where she found trouble but Amanda wouldn't or couldn't there was no way that I was ever gonna say my daughter's totally innocent she would never ever do anything if I were an investigating officer I would have probably taken her computer and checked it out because regardless of of what she did she was still an underaged miner Carol felt police weren't taking the threat seriously despite the fact this had gone way beyond online bullying this was blackmail or sextortion a new crime now exploding on the Internet with many other victims like Amanda he told me that if I contacted the police he would send all the photos of me that he had of me got he got a blackmail me [Music] what Amanda Todd was doing online was pretty typical for many teenagers chances are right now there's a teen girl in a room on your street or in your neighborhood on a live streaming webcam doing something their parents are completely oblivious to though there are some exceptions like in this incident caught on video this girl's mother barges into her daughter's bedroom and the show is shut down so why would a girl flash will Amanda's friends Shia and Tessa say they don't but given a little online flirting and flattery other girls will for most girls it's like the attention and wanting to feel important in a way I guess then how does the flattery work like where is that coming from well probably like he's encouraging you to like flash so he's being nice and like talking to you but at the time does it seem like flattery or does it seem like someone who's really trying to trick you to do something thing at the time it seems like flattery that flattery is laid on thick by a male audience who systematically stock websites looking for girls on their webcams they're a new breed of cyber predators who capture the girls images they call themselves cappers Alicia Rita was drawn into this dark world back in 2005 she was 16 years old like Amanda she was vulnerable and like Amanda she went online looking for something better I create a profile of myself and I'd have guys and girls make comments oh you're so pretty and stuff like that and I get this attention this positive attention that I had never gotten before because I was constantly being ridiculed at school I was constantly being put down and I loved going on the computer I loved getting that attention I explained this to me why couldn't you be the person offline that you were online cuz no one wanted to be with that person Alli was getting special attention from one particular guy he said he was 18 and like her lived in Kingston Ontario he was nice he was sweet every day on the computer morning afternoon night hey how's it going how was your day I missed you how is he making you feel on top of the world but they're innocent conversations soon turns sexual during their webcam chats he would undress urging Ali to do the same he would say where's your mom that I go is she's sitting on the couch and like the couch would be further further off to the side where you wouldn't be able to see her and he go do me a favor close the doors in a bit tried nonchalant kind of close the doors in so she wouldn't notice that's when he would start to remove his pants and pull out his genitalia and he would start to masturbate on webcam with your mother sitting feet away from you yeah tell me about the time you did flashing for the first time all I remember was it was just a just do it for me and I just Ali eventually agreed to meet her online friend at his parents house there she says he sexually assaulted her but she didn't go to police at that time instead she tried to cut him out of her life but like Amanda Todd she would quickly discover how a cyber stalker always finds a way back in I told him that if he ever contacted me again that I would contact the police and almost laughing at me he told me that if I contacted the police he would send all the photos of me that he had of me yada yada yada blackmail me not hold on a second what did he have on you at that point oh the photos of me flashing him and stuff Ali was then stalked online her accounts hacked she said she hated being alone with her computer meanwhile police in Kingston were contacted by police in Alberta and England who were on the trail of a serial blackmailer whose victims were as young as 9 years old Stephanie Morgan works for Ontario's integrated Child Exploitation Unit in Kingston what were the depths of what his requests were for them to do online sexual acts including masturbation insertion of objects and it even ranged as far as bestiality you were profiling this guy so what do you think he was getting out of this my impression is that he was getting a sense of power that he maybe didn't experience in his in his own personal life power over other people and and some sexual satisfaction as well police took the blackmailers emails track down the IP address of the computer they were sent from and asked the internet company whose name was on the account the originating IP address actually came from Kingston and we realized that the person doing this lived right here in our community so you've got the IP address how do you put a name to this well we've tracked back and where the activity was originating from and realized who lived there and it was mark Bedford the blackmailer was a babyface 21 year old student who still lived with his parents he would be convicted of terrorizing 63 girls in Canada and the UK I was reading over the newspaper and that's when I was like oh my god it's him it's it's him it's the guy the charge of sexually assaulting Ali was withdrawn in a plea deal but he was sentenced to three years in prison a young criminal armed with little more than a computer he was a young adult by the time of his arrest but he came across more as a teenager there's an awkward socially awkward teenager who couldn't keep eye contact when he spoke to you mumbled and spoke quietly and just seemed small and harmless but he just seems like such a an everyday character of there as opposed to some evil predator I'm just trying to I don't know how you square the two things here that's something we see commonly in in this type of situation these types of investigations you can't you can't pick these people out over at ontario's integrated Child Exploitation unit detective Frank Goldschmidt says Bedford was a new breed of predator the younger white male is now involved more online because you know they're a little bit more tech savvy and they just really have this expertise of being able to communicate with a whole bunch of people in a very short period of time so it when you first started the the creepy old man was 65 and now today's creepy old man is 25 25 or even younger it's the fall of 2011 and back in BC Carol Todd was wondering how actively the RCMP was trying to track down Amanda's blackmailer there has to be ways to dig into all that stuff regarding who it might be and though she was hopeful she'd soon learn the blackmail was about to get worse [Laughter] for every girl who has ever pushed their boundaries online you can be sure there is someone out there just waiting to capture that image cappers as they're known online then trade images like Amanda's and post them on websites teenaged girls forever young forever online cappers even had a weekly newscast posted on YouTube welcome campers and camp horse to another addition of the daily capper the daily capper would profile new girls who were online like must-see TV and one of those girls was Amanda the other girl from Blanc has been talked about a lot this week the mountain Amanda many girls may not even know their images have been captured and posted online unless like Amanda they're blackmailed with demands for more the blackmailers then surface on websites they brazenly trade tactics to get more nude pictures from girls what they called a win okay good news got some pics on her but possible blackmail for some wins anyone any good on this for suggestions on how mail account seems permanently blocked but I found her Facebook maybe she can be blackmailed this video of Amanda was recorded and posted on a website while she was still being publicly shunned and shamed she found comfort online she was craving attention and affection and she knew where she could find it but her online chat logs obtained by the Fifth Estate reveals some of the attention was unwanted and making her increasingly uncomfortable her fears were justified October 2011 ten months since the RCMP had first been notified about Amanda's case and she received another blackmail threat once again Carroll saved the message this is the third request to Amanda to reveal herself and do something sexual on cam Carroll has never made this public before a disturbing Facebook message from someone using the online name Tyler boo you already forgot Who I am the guy who last year made you change school got your door kicked in by the cops give me three shows and I will disappear forever you know I won't stop until you give me those three shows if you go to a new school new bf new friends new whatever I will be there again I am crazy yes so your answer you've got pictures you've got email addresses you know you've got a campaign here a blackmail campaign yep it's all right here what did you do with this when I got it yeah from Amanda I saved it sent it to the RCMP Carol had been in repeated contact with the RCMP handing them clues in the case that's why she wanted to know what they could do to catch the blackmailer in this email response to her the Mountie seemed to suggest not much I would highly recommend that a man to close all her Facebook and email accounts at this time faced with the repeated sexual extortion of a 14 year old the Mounties blunt assessment if Amanda does not stay off the internet and or take steps to protect herself online there is only so much we as the police can do as a parent absolutely feel helpless and when the police can't accomplish anything what does that tell you it's very difficult because how can you comfort your daughter or anybody when you've got something that you can't control yourself and they can see that you can't stop and control it now just think about what the RCMP seemed to be seeing here imagine a 14 year old girl being stalked by a predator in a park sure the police would say stay away from the park but would also expect them to do their best to find the predator in what other situation when the police tell a teenage victim the best option is for her to protect herself even Carol Todd was giving the RCMP ideas about what they could do to protect her child in an email she suggested the police could set a trap to catch the blackmailer would baiting the fellow be of any use well it's not such a wild idea laying a trap is exactly what detective Frank Goldschmidt from the integrated Child Exploitation unit in Ontario would do and he showed us how simply it can be done watch is this officer posing as a girl online trolls for online predators we'll actually assume their accounts and will continue chatting with this individual to try and get ourselves in a position where we can identify them and then go and get them you know we can suggest the people you know to cut communications but I mean it doesn't take long for the offender to re-establish a connection through another another means whether it's another chat forum on the internet or simple email but back in BC Carroll said the RCMP never took over Amanda's accounts even though the blackmailer came back again since November 12 is the Facebook page in November of 2011 a fake facebook account is created by someone posing as a new student at Amanda's school the person connects with Amanda's Facebook friends then switches his profile picture to that infamous photo he posts this message with the picture sent to about 280 peeps enjoy the shit fest what do you see when you see that picture now what do I see if only I could tell who was at the other end taking that picture we're in a decade of technology that doesn't go away there has to be ways to dig into all that stuff regarding who it might be if I had one dying wish that would be it find out who started all this but to find that digital trail detective Goldschmidt says police have to act fast some of it might be time stamped and may disappear after a certain period of time but in most cases it's the service provider that will maintain that information so when we become aware of a case we have to get on it immediately because it is time-sensitive so if you don't get it early it's gone pretty much it had been almost a year since the blackmail and sextortion began and it was taking its toll on Amanda her parents and a concerned high school guidance counselor were worried so were her friends it was creating anxiety knowing that everyone has seen your photo no one can let it go so she was just like feelings faked and like she didn't want to be like around people because that so she just like stayed inside or than like she just wasn't like herself I feel like yeah Amanda sent this message to one of her online friends which we found on her laptop you know how many times I've heard nobody likes you or wants you here go back to where you came from or if you died I would throw a party ever since all this happened I just cry myself to sleep because it hurts no matter what please please just help me this is Amanda on a good day she'd spent three weeks in hospital after she started cutting herself in this video she's out for a walk with a friend away from her tormentors she was in this rare moment safe and she was fighting to keep it that way in this chat someone asked her to perform for him on her webcam I don't do that shit anymore I have self-respect and don't give it to randoms coming up Amanda's video and the true story behind it [Music] early September 2012 Amanda Todd had spent most of the summer inside her mother's house afraid to go out afraid to be recognized as the girl in that infamous photo but alone in her bedroom she had an idea she's got the bug in her ear to do the video and so she started on this little project she wouldn't tell me what the project was but she told me that she needed black markers and she took all my white paper right and she made the video Amanda posted it on YouTube and the online world started watching but her parents say people have misinterpreted the meaning of the video people think that that was a suicide video it was it was not it was a release she wanted her story out there especially to the people that were harassing her it was very touching and very sad of a wake-up call of what my daughter's going through Amanda's video attracted more and more attention other kids could relate to her struggle and sent her messages of support she replied with this message obtained by the Fifth Estate it's finally nice to see people care my family and my mom are the ones trying to stay strong I booked November 28th to get my stay strong tattoo on my wrist so I can look at it and stop myself people now call me crazy but I'm just gonna keep my head up love and cheers Amanda [Music] a man that never lived to get her stay strong tattoo she took her life on October 10th in her mother's house alone the tattoo that's in memory of my daughter so her father norm got the stay strong tattoo for Amanda her ashes were mixed with the ink about October of the 10th and when you learned what had happened to your daughter I got a phone call I was in my lake house that was in church for my father what was her last message to you um that she loved me to not be mad at her that she would always be my princess no what's the lasting image of her that you want to hold on to her singing [Music] Amanda Todd's bedroom sits pretty much as she left it after ending her life more than a year ago a shrine to lost hopes and dreams tucked away on her bulletin board a business card from an RCMP investigator an image frozen in time after her suicide things started happening the internet exploded with rumors about who drove her to her death the case finally became a priority 20 officers were assigned to it but are the police any closer to figuring out who was behind the sextortion of Amanda Todd the RCMP refused to speak to us saying the investigation is still ongoing what I do things differently absolutely III would have tried to change things up and I probably would have made sure she got a lot more attention in love and stayed really close to her a lot closer for Carroll the search for answers comes too late for her daughter nobody dug deep enough to find the answers for Amanda maybe for the reasons that no one anticipated her outcome either so you think of it as just another report just another child [Music] but how many more children how many more teens are behind closed doors in their parents house right now flirting with the idea of a harmless flash and how many more blackmailers are just waiting for that moment waiting to capture the photo and then post it online an indelible image like Amanda's [Music] thank you we'd like to thank norm and Carol Todd for their help in telling this story opening not only their lives to us but also Amanda's now after watching this program you may be wondering what to do if you suspect your child is being exploited online we'll go to our website where we have information from police and the child protection group cyber tip that's at cbc.ca slash v v the state returns right after this

Info

Channel: CBC News

Views: 3,194,879

Rating: 4.7319851 out of 5

Keywords: Suicide Of Amanda Todd (Event), Amanda Todd, cyberbullying, CBC Television (TV Network), the fifth estate, Mark Kelley, cappers, Documentary (TV Genre)

Id: uQRnSIa-qQM

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 42min 20sec (2540 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 11 2014

Reddit Comments

It's disturbing that even after her death, people were still leaving cruel comments about her. Saying that they are glad that she's gone and that a slut like her deserved it... Just so scary.

👍︎︎ 27 👤︎︎ u/Keepcounting 📅︎︎ Oct 03 2016 🗫︎ replies

It's a fucking tragedy. Girl had a really nice voice.. The only way to not let this bother you, it to get off the internet. Sad.

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/Emilio_Molestevez 📅︎︎ Oct 04 2016 🗫︎ replies

It was really heart-wrenching, shocking and depressing to see (in this film) how attached Amanda became to that webcam, how her self-esteem depended on the reactions she got from total strangers, and then from mean girls at school.

👍︎︎ 15 👤︎︎ u/invisiblette 📅︎︎ Oct 03 2016 🗫︎ replies

Just Google her name and the first thing that popped up on Google was her name follow by 'flash'. 😐

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/AlphakirA 📅︎︎ Oct 04 2016 🗫︎ replies

Literally brought me to tears. She didn't deserve that, no child does. I'm not gonna begin to put myself in her shoes, but high school was not a good time for me. I went to a low place and really never came back up. I didnt have much friends and a couple caring family members. But the few people I had were definitely what kept me afloat. Maybe that's all she needed too. I sincerely wish I could have had a conversation with her. Let her know she wasn't alone.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/Sariel559 📅︎︎ Oct 04 2016 🗫︎ replies

The story is heartbreaking and I'm really glad I watched it.

So all due respect and all of that.

But man, what's with people still making stuff in this 1997 Dateline style? It's so trashy for such a serious subject.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/robobot 📅︎︎ Oct 04 2016 🗫︎ replies

Poor little girl.. Her parents made a lot of mistakes.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/lubabe66 📅︎︎ Oct 04 2016 🗫︎ replies

Stupid parents.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/pics-or-didnt-happen 📅︎︎ Oct 03 2016 🗫︎ replies