Things are now worse for a teenage girl in Atlantic Canada who spoke out to CTV News about the cyberbullying she has endured.
Less than an hour after CTV Atlantic aired the 15-year-old girl’s story of being bullied and harassed online, she received a death threat through social media.
CTV News is protecting the girl’s identity because she says she was the victim of online harassment and an alleged sexual assault at the hands of a woman ten years older than her.
On Wednesday, she spoke out about the alleged assault and the cyberbullying, which involved someone making several fake Instagram accounts under her name, and using them to post pornography.
“We thought we'd get some response, but we didn't think it would be anything like that,” said her father.
On Thursday morning, the girl’s family met in person with an investigator from Nova Scotia’s cyberbullying investigative unit, CyberSCAN.
The girl’s father said CyberSCAN is working with RCMP investigators on the case, following their lead.
He said he wants to see CyberSCAN and schools doing more to educate kids about online bullying.
Roger Merrick, the unit’s director, says education is part of what CyberSCAN does.
“One of the mandates of the CyberSCAN unit is to provide education to the public about cyberbullying, and that includes giving hundreds of presentations in schools across the province,” Merrick said.
“Say, for example, a situation occurs in a school, we may follow up with presentations at a later date in that school,” he said.
Merrick said parents need to be aware of what their kids are doing online, to make sure they're not being bullied, and not being the bully.
“If you're going to be involved in social media, educate yourselves. Educate your children. Make sure they understand the vulnerabilities in not knowing,” Merrick said.
The girl’s family says they’ve closed down their social media accounts, and are hoping their lives can soon get back to normal.
The girl is worried there could be more backlash.
“I'll be just a little bit nervous just because people are after me. I don't know what they're going to do to me when I go back to school,” she said.
“I never thought this could happen to me this way.”
Police say no charges have yet been laid.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie and Kayla Hounsell.