About nine years ago, Amanda Todd put up a video that would forever change the nation.
In a heart-breaking nine-minute YouTube film titled My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self-harm, Todd detailed how she was coerced by a stranger to exposure herself online.
That man took screenshots and used them to blackmail Todd.
Police would later inform her that the pictures had been widely circulated.
Incessant bullying would ensue, and, on Oct. 10, 2012, she would take her life.
This is a story that should not be forgotten, and it speaks volumes about how sexual exploitation can happen online to anyone and anywhere.
Including Squamish.
It can be anyone in your life.
And, right now, with a pandemic forcing more of us to spend more time inside than ever before, we need to be vigilant.
Last week, activist Cathy Peters of the ‘Be Amazing’ program warned Squamish both in a council meeting and in an interview with The Chief that sexual exploitation and trafficking is a huge issue that we cannot turn a blind eye toward.
This is not one person being an alarmist — federal RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki stated in a recent ethics committee hearing that this is a growing concern.
On April 12, Lucki reported that child sexual exploitation online increased 36% from March 2020 to May 2020 — a big jump in just three months last year.
Many of us have limited options now. We’re forced to move our lives more and more onto the internet.
Parents are overwhelmed with the economic and logistical problems that involve working in the middle of a third wave of COVID-19. A wave that, by the way, has turned Squamish into one of the hardest hit communities in the last seven days.
Given the circumstances, it’s easy for us to be pulled in too many directions.
But we cannot lose sight of a vulnerability that now exists for any youth or young adult who has access to an internet connection.
We’re living in an age where it’s becoming increasingly normal to meet people online first.
While this used to be a somewhat peculiar activity, meetup groups, dating and many other social activities are now hosted on the web.
The commissioner’s numbers and the message of Peters is a compelling one — be vigilant.
We’re not saying to cut your children off from a social life online, but all the precautions many of us had pre-pandemic have become lax.
It’s time to tighten them up again.
