Its a Death Instrument: Her daughter took her own life, she highlights the harmful effects of TikTok.

Government Takes Action Against TikTok

• The government is launching an offensive against one of the most popular social networks in the world: TikTok.
• The Minister of National Education has taken legal action against TikTok, specifically for incitement to suicide.
• A mother, whose daughter took her own life, also testifies to its harmful effects.

Four months before her suicide, 16-year-old Emma alerted her mother. Christina immediately took her to see a child psychiatrist and discovered the extent of her suffering. “With this doctor, I learned that my daughter is suicidal. I had no idea. She was hiding everything, her self-harm, I never saw anything,” she recounts in the above report. During this time, the teenager faced mockery and harassment at school, but she remained silent and spent several hours a day on Instagram and TikTok. “I am absolutely convinced that she would not have taken the action without social media. Of course, there was distress, that’s for sure, but this amplification, this speed, this algorithmic spiral meant that she reached the end. It leaves no chance for children,” she says.

After her death, Christina went through her daughter’s accounts. She discovered on some videos the steps to end her own life. “It’s an instrument of death, and if we knew, I know that no parent would let this tool in their children’s hands. And yet, I bought this phone,” mourns Christina, a member of the collective “Algos victim”.

“We created an account in the name of a 14-year-old girl. After 20 minutes, we were caught in a deathly spiral.”

Edouard Geffray, Minister of National Education

Facing these extremes, the Minister of National Education, Edouard Geffray, has taken legal action this week. He denounces provocation to suicide. “For example, young people show how to train on a bread roll to make cuts on their arms. We created an account in the name of a 14-year-old girl. After 20 minutes, we were caught in a deathly spiral,” he laments.

How can we better protect minors from addiction? A bill is under review to ban these social networks before the age of 15. The testimony of a young girl, collected by TF1’s news, is very explicit. “By scrolling, I don’t watch the time, and it’s when I stop that I see it’s late. It’s hard to stop watching,” she says, adding that she would have preferred to be prevented from doing so. “I think it would have been better. Maybe I wouldn’t be as addicted today,” she concludes.

TikTok, for its part, assures that it protects its users to the best of its ability. “We integrate safeguards into our recommendation systems: they are designed to detect and interrupt repetitive viewing patterns, especially on sensitive topics,” stated the Chinese social network on March 27 in a press release.

Read also: “I spent more than 20,000 euros”: behind the TikTok Shop algorithm, a “very vicious circle”

For the first time this week in the United States, Instagram and YouTube were recognized as responsible for the addictive nature of their services and had to pay 6 million dollars to a young Californian. This decision could set a precedent. 22 lawsuits are ongoing, and 1,600 complaints are pending.