If your child has seen the distressing TikTok suicide video

Potentially you’ve seen information shared about a video that is potentially very distressing for children and adults. It is a video of a man taking his own life and people might not necessarily know what it is before it plays which makes it extra disturbing. 

This video footage was originally streamed live to Facebook on August 31st and since that time it has been shared across many social media platforms, including TikTok and Instagram. It is likely to be have shared between people via messaging services such as Messenger and Whats app. 

It has also been recut for “jump scares” which is a technique often used in horror and video games, intended to scare or surprise the audience with an abrupt image alongside a loud scream.

Responsibility of social media

All social media sites including TikTok have a responsibility to remove this content immediately. On the other hand, algorithms that social media uses, elevates such content. This means that content is that is “popular” will be pushed around the site more and turn up as a suggestions in your feed even if you did not search for it.

Asking children to avoid using TikTiok for a couple of days may stop them from seeing it but as the video has been circulating for over a week on social sites or messaging services many children have likely viewed it already. 

Our children

Children may view such content at home alone while they are remote learning, they may view it on the bus coming home from school, they may be sent the content by a school friend. The reality is that we may not always be there to shield children from this content. 

While these are tough conversations, talking to your child about such content is important. The conversation should follow two lines, one regarding suicide and the other regarding why such content is posted online and how to stop it having a negative impact on us. 

Live streaming violence

Unfortunately as we have seen over the past 18 months, live-streaming violence is becoming more regular, and our children are becoming more and more immersed in such content from a young age. We did not have to deal with such content when we were young, but our children are going up in a different era - the digital era - and for them knowing how to deal with it emotionally is important. 

Depending o the age of your child, if they have not seen the video it is likely that they have heard of the video. 

Talking to children about distressing online content

• Depending on the age of the child talk about suicide and what has happened to the person in the video. 

• Young children are very sensitive to violent content. They will be very concerned about the person in the footage and what happened to the person since it was filmed. Explain it gently to them. 

• Talk about why someone would post a video of themselves on social media doing this. Your talk might include points the person was hurting and wanted others to know that and used social media to do this. 

• Also explain how social media algorithms work and why they might have seen the footage without searching it. Understanding the mechanics of this helps them to take more control of what they see and not let the social media platform decide for them. 

Also ensure the settings on your router and devices are set to secure. This of course can and never will take the place of talking openly with your child about stressing content online and supporting them to learn how to deal with it.