This document describes the experience of Imogen Todd, who was severely bullied online and in person starting at age 13. The bullying escalated to daily harassment and threats on social media, as well as one instance where she was physically assaulted. This led Imogen to attempt suicide and experience depression. After getting support from family and professionals, Imogen has now graduated high school and wants to help other bullying victims based on her own experience. The document also mentions that cyber bullying is a major issue for police in the Illawarra region and new laws are being introduced to better protect children online.

1. IMD0015
www.illawarramercury.com.au ILLAWARRA MERCURY, Saturday January 10, 2015 15
mercury news 15
Teased near to death
‘‘Communication with
parents or friends can help
incredibly.
Bullied almost to the point of suicide, this teenager found
support and fought her way through to new opportunities,
writes NICOLE JOHNSTONE.
‘‘GO kill yourself’’ was Imogen
Todd’s regular wake-up directive
when she was 13.
In the confines of her bedroom,
the Cordeaux Heights teen would
receive an influx of hate-filled
messages from fellow students via
social media every morning.
Unable to switch off, the situ-
ation escalated to dangerous
heights.
‘‘It started when I was in year 8,’’
said Imogen, now 17.
‘‘People would call me nasty
things like ‘filthy whore’ and a
‘slut’ every day on Facebook.
‘‘It was mainly girls starting it
but sometimes boys would add
things as well, just to watch the
drama unravel.’’
Unsure of how to resolve the
situation, Imogen tried to refute
the rumours.
‘‘Most of the things I read about
me were [untrue] so naturally I
tried to defend myself, which only
made things worse because it was
what everyone wanted,’’ she said.
‘‘Other people would see it as a
means to [say] more bad things
about me so it was never ending.
‘‘At the
t i m e , I
didn’t want
to give in by
r e m o v i n g
my profile; I
thought if
they don’t
l i k e m e ,
they can de-
lete my pro-
f i l e s o I
tried blocking the main offenders.
‘‘Even though I had actively
blocked them, I would still get
screen shots of what people had
said about me so I never really
disconnected from it.’’
On many occasions, the bullying
went beyond the cyber world.
‘‘I had been threatened online
on various occasions but one time
I was actually bashed,’’ she said.
‘‘It went down really badly be-
cause it was filmed and put up
online for everyone to see, it was
so horrific.’’
As the situation worsened,
Imogen desperately needed a way
to escape.
‘‘I had swapped schools at one
point because I thought that
would help,’’ she said.
‘‘As everything was online, it
just followed me to the other
school and got worse.
‘‘I began to self-harm regularly,
which earned me the reputation
of an attention seeker.
‘‘When people found out, they
would tell me to go cut myself
again.’’
After years of constant harass-
ment, Imogen tried to take her
own life.
‘‘I was really down all the time,’’
she said.
‘‘I was missing school because I
didn’t want to face anyone. I went
all of year 10 [attending] only one
full week of school; I just wanted it
to be over.
‘‘After a while I was diagnosed
with clinical depression; I was
prescribed anti-depressants
which helped considerably.’’
Four years later, Imogen is now
proud she survived the abuse and
is keen to help other victims.
‘‘Looking back at it now, I’m glad
I have come through it,’’ the
teenager said.
‘‘I had a heap of support from my
parents throughout that time, and
s a w
s c h o o l
counsel-
lors, psy-
c h o l o g -
ists and
psychia-
trists.
‘ ‘ T h e
way I see
it, every-
t h i n g I
have gone through was a learning
experience.
‘‘I want to be a psychologist so I
feel that as bad as my experience
was, I will be able to connect with
other victims and help them
through their struggles.’’
Imogen believes the best
strategy for cyber bullying victims
is to talk about it.
‘‘Communication with parents
or friends can help incredibly and
pull victims out of a horrible
situation to come through it,’’ she
said.
‘‘Having got through it, I feel
strong.’’
‘‘I know what I can withstand
and will always stand up for
anyone who went through a sim-
ilar situation to me.’’
Cops target cyber bullies
NICOLE JOHNSTONE
CYBER BULLYING among Illa-
warra teenagers is one of the
biggest issues faced by Wollon-
gong police, a senior officer has
revealed.
Wollongong crime co-ordi-
nator Senior Sergeant Lisa West-
wood said incidents of online
harassment were extremely high
in the region, particularly among
students.
Sgt Westwood said most
school-aged participants in a
recent cyber bullying pilot pro-
gram said they had been affected
by cyber bullying.
Amid warnings about the
under-reporting of cyber bully-
ing, the federal government in-
troduced the Enhancing Online
Safety for Children Bill 2014 in
December.
Parliamentary Secretary to
the Minister for Communica-
tions Paul Fletcher said the bill
aimed to protect children online.
It includes plans to establish a
Children’s e-Safety Commis-
sioner and a comprehensive
complaints system.
‘‘The complaints system is a
key feature that has been draf-
ted to apply to large social
media services,’’ he said.
‘‘It will give the commissioner
the power to issue a notice to
large social media services re-
quiring them to remove harmful
material.
‘‘It will apply to all large social
media services, even if operat-
ing in different jurisdictions.’’
Dundas Lawyers legal prac-
tice director Malcolm Burrows
said this was the most misunder-
stood issue with social media.
‘‘Companies based in the Unit-
ed States could rely on the
Communications Decency Act,
which contained broad immun-
ities for the operator of the
website,’’ he said. ‘‘The laws are
different for operators of
Australian-based websites.’’
WHAT TO DO
IF YOU ARE
BULLIED
ONLINE:
1. Do not respond
2. Avoid retaliation
3. Block the instigator
4. Save the evidence
5. Report the incident
6. Communicate openly with family
and friends
7. Be vigilant online
8. Do not encourage cyber bullying
9. Do not share harmful material
10. Be supportive of victims