In death, Canadian teen sheds light on cyberbullying

OTTAWA (AFP) - The suicide of a Canadian girl tormented by an anonymous cyberbully has sparked a national debate in Canada on what is appropriate online behavior, calls for criminalising the cruel practice and a police warning on Tuesday against vigilantism.

In a YouTube video watched by millions worldwide, Amanda Todd, 15, said she suffered from anxiety, "major depression" and panic attacks after a photo of her breasts, flashed in an online video chat with a stranger in Grade 7, was distributed in her community in Canada's western-most British Columbia province.

She said she withdrew and turned to drugs and alcohol, and "cried every night".

In the video, Todd laments a lack of friends due to the controversy, a schoolyard beating over a boy and changing schools several times to escape blackmail.She says, "I have nobody. I need someone."