"Somebody could've stood up for her — I would have stood up for her," a teary-eyed teen says in a reaction video to the viral cyberbullying clip uploaded to YouTube by Amanda Todd, a 10th-grade student who was later found dead Oct. 10 in her Port Coquitlam, Canada, home.
The reaction video (watch above) from The Fine Brothers, who won an Emmy for best viral video series in June for the popular Kids React To YouTube series, showcases a range of emotional responses from teens.
The teens watch Amanda detail her brushes with bullying and then are told about her suspected suicide.
"They all felt so completely alone in this fight and struggle against this huge problem, and felt with the advent of Internet, laptops and smartphones, you can never escape being bullied anymore," Benny Fine tells Mashable.
Q&A With the Fine Brothers About Their Amanda Todd Follow-Up Video
Was there any hesitation to show the Amanda Todd video to the teens?
No. We don't shy away from making episodes about major issues, it's that thought of shielding it from youth that helped add to the problem in the first place, and we're honored and proud to have our reactors be brave enough to put themselves out there like this. We had done a Kids React to bullying a year ago and knew it was important to continue content based around this issue with teens. This video was a good entry point to discuss not just the tragedy of Amanda Todd but the overall issues of cyberbullying in general and how it's resulted in bullying being far worse than it ever has been before.
The one decision we had to make prior to going through doing such a serious controversial topic was the reality that we would have to face so many vile and hateful comments (most of which from "trolls" just looking for attention and a laugh). Every React episode deals with disgusting comments being left about the Kids and Teens on our show, which is a plight for all creators/producers online that have shows featuring young people, but we stepped up our own moderation to curb the cyberbullying as best we can without more tools being available on YouTube.
Unfortunately, the web and all major social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have not done everything they can to prevent the feelings many of the teens in this episode expressed, which is a feeling that people can do anything they want on the Internet with no consequences (other than driving people to depression, anxiety, harming themselves and suicide). There has not been any real major crackdowns on suspending users or accounts by any of these sites to the proper degree. Nor have they continued to provide the proper tools to the users of their sites to take the issue into their own hands to help curb the issue. Knowing how much work and effort would have to go into handling the incessant hate was the only hesitation, since we knew it would bog down our company to deal with it. But it was worth it, and it was what had to be done.
Did you expect them to react the way they did?
The opinions of the next generation and past generations always surprise us and is why we work so hard to keep these shows going.
One reaction we were not expecting was the almost unanimous feeling of apathy and hopelessness from all the teens when it comes to cyberbullying. They all felt so completely alone in this fight and struggle against this huge problem, and felt with the advent of Internet, laptops and smartphones, you can never escape being bullied anymore. It doesn't just happen at school, but follows you home and everywhere you go 24/7. Another reaction that was unexpected was the idea that they all feel that adults (parents, teachers, etc.) have no idea about how bad this has all become online, and again, how hopeless they feel in regard to feeling that anybody cares and that anybody will take any measures to try to fix it. Lastly, it's never expected to see some of them break down into tears, but it shows just how deep this issue is across the board.
A huge part of our shows is the reaction from the audience, which is just as much a "Reactor" as the featured teens in the episode itself. We did not expect such an outpouring of thousands upon thousands of stories in comments and email about the personal stories and struggles of so many people. It is difficult to see so much pain from so many people, but also inspiring to see many saying that this episode helped them with their own thoughts of depression, suicidal thoughts, etc. and being inspired by it to take action against bullying in their own lives and the people around them. Though we are very in tune with the state of the web, even we did not realize how bad and widespread this was until we released this episode.
Anything else you would like to add?
From doing React shows for two years now, we have become so in tune with what is going on in youth culture, especially with how they use the Internet. The full reality is that parents, teachers, and the media have no idea about what really goes on with the web in so many ways. Bullying is such a deep-rooted issue that is glossed over as "it's always been there" so often, and to echo some of the reactors, bullying and cyberbullying should not be looked at a right of passage, and if we did treat the issue more like decades-old "say no to drugs" campaigns, we can eventually make a dent to make this better.
Finally, we have made a career of creating content on the Internet, and with the tools of social media. We ourselves have been sent countless death threats and slurs and religious hatred for the entire eight years we've been online. Every social media site from Facebook to Twitter to YouTube to Instagram to any live streaming site has a responsibility to not be so hands-off in order to avoid blame and being sued. These sites are the tools for cyberbullying and they need to be held accountable if they aren't going to have the proper staff, guidelines and features available to combat the issue. Not every comment and post can be stopped, but a lot can.
These sites can actually curb the problem of breeding more haters and trolls if they actually took a stand against them. By having almost no restrictions, the reality of the Internet is that anonymity results in no responsibility for one's actions. We implore these sites to take more action and have stronger policies. There will always be people who find ways around the system to be hateful no matter what, but there are tens of thousands more who just do it for the attention and reaction and don't even mean it, but see no consequences from all the other comments left so they join in. If you start suspending these accounts when they are brought to your attention, and give proper tools and features to manage people's pages and channels' communities effectively, it will curb a huge degree of the problem.
In the meantime, the spirit of our show is to get people talking, thinking and embracing having an opinion. Let's keep that going and together at some point, things can take a turn for the better.
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