Two years after the suicide of a teenager who spoke about the harassment she was suffering on TikTok, her parents filed a complaint against the platform. According to them, the social network’s algorithm would have generated the arrival of other videos on the same theme on Marie’s account. Specialists nevertheless believe that the responsibility for such a tragedy cannot be solely attributed to social networks.
September 16, 2021. Marie, 15 years old, commits suicide in Cassis, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. Before this drama, like many adolescents, the young girl spent time on the TikTok platform. A few weeks before her death, she published a video to discuss the school harassment she suffered about her weight. The publication generates, through algorithms, the arrival of other videos on the same theme on his account.
Two years later, on September 8, Marie’s parents decided to file a complaint against TikTok For provocation to suicide, non-assistance to people in danger and propaganda or advertising of means of killing oneself, according to information from franceinfo. A first in France.
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“TikTok obviously has its share of responsibility”
For Laure Boutron-Marmion, lawyer for Marie’s parents, “TikTok obviously has its share of responsibility in taking action. The platforms, the social networks, play a role in dealing with a teenager who is already extremely psychologically fragile due to the harassment he suffers.”
“Through the algorithm, the teenager received a mass of these videos which are on the same theme and which can only lead to being even worse”
Laure Boutron-Marmion, lawyerat franceinfo
Mental health specialists agree with the lawyer, while qualifying her remarks. There actually exists “an effect of increasing suicide rates after media exposure”, explains child and adolescent psychiatrist Charles-Edouard Notredame. Its name: the Werther effect, inspired by the wave of suicides in Europe, following the publication of Goethe’s novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther.
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“At the time of this publication, media exhibitions were books. It evolved with the appearance of more traditional media, then digital transformationsexplains Charles-Edouard Notredame, scientific referent for the National Program to Combat Suicidal Contagion (Papageno). “Already, because media publications are now massively done online. But also because everyone can post their own content on social networks, which can lead to the publication of potentially deregulated content, which can also expose people to Werther effects.”
“Suicide is never the result of a single cause”
However, according to specialists, suicide cannot only be attributed to these publications. “The position as a doctor is to say that suicide is never the result of a single cause, never. It is unfortunately the result of a life course”analyzes Charles-Edouard Notredame, child and adolescent psychiatrist.
He metaphorizes: “We can reflect via the image of the straw that breaks the camel’s back: an event which, at the last moment, precipitates the act. The question that arises is: is this drop of water is responsible for the act?” Sometimes, on the contrary, social networks can even help save lives, explains the psychiatrist.
“We must also remember that, of course, there are social media influences that can be at risk, but also others that can be extremely positive.”
Charles-Edouard Notredame, child and adolescent psychiatristat franceinfo
“There are young people who have been encouraged to seek advice precisely because a friend told them about this or that help resource on social networks”. TikTok, for example, displays the National Suffering and Suicide Prevention Number, 3114, as soon as a user searches for the word suicide on the platform. “But young people, in particular, have techniques to circumvent these barriers. For example, they no longer look for the word ‘suicide’ but write it ‘su!c!de’. analyzes Nathalie Pawels. Around ten such schemes exist around this word on TikTok, according to the Papageno program referent.
Since Marie’s suicide, an investigation has been opened into the incidents of school harassment reported. The Toulon public prosecutor’s office specifies that his parents’ complaint against TikTok deserves an in-depth analysis.