“Dad, can I download TikTok?” Maia politely asked her father, five months after she turned thirteen.
Liam Walsh double-checked the legal age for the app and said he was confident his adult child could use the app responsibly. Like other teenagers, Maia refused to listen to her parents’ calls to get off her phone, while she was lost in the virtual world for hours.
But six months later, at 3.15am on October 7, Mr Walsh received a phone call that will haunt him forever.
“Maia is dead,” her mother shouted. His little girl had taken her own life three weeks before her fourteenth birthday.
The father adored the daughter whom he described as an ordinary, happy 13-year-old girl who excelled at school and enjoyed playing Minecraft.
“She was a sweet, happy child until TikTok happened,” he said. “My world turned into pieces. Afterwards I look back and wonder if something is going on. I don’t know if she was dragged into a world that she didn’t think she was mature enough to understand.”
Mr Walsh is one of a number of grieving families sharing their harrowing stories of losing children in circumstances where social media is suspected of playing a role, after Ofcom took their first steps to regulate the online sphere.
Ofcom’s Chief Executive Dame Melanie Dawe said the regulator “cannot waste a moment” in setting out how they protect children online. Ofcom will work with social media sites to ensure that harmful material, such as child sexual abuse material, grooming and violent content, is removed.
Mr Walsh is now campaigning for full transparency of Maia’s online details in the months leading up to her death. As it stands, social media platforms have a 90-day retention policy.
The 48-year-old says he saw two disturbing videos in which he romanticized self-harm and suicide through his daughter’s TikTok-like history, seen by The independent.
“My quest is to find out what drove my child to do something so destructive and dangerous: Maia misses her life. “Maybe there’s nothing to see, but I deserve to have the chance to find out.”
When asked for comment, TikTok cited their community guidelines which state that they do not allow showing, promoting or sharing plans for suicide or self-harm. They say that any content that violates these terms will be removed. The social media platform also says it releases quarterly Community Guidelines enforcement reports to hold itself accountable and claims that 98.1% of content removed in Q2 2023 was proactively removed.
TikTok added that they are working closely with Samaritans and the International Association for Suicide Prevention to remove harmful content while allowing users to share their problems in a safe way.
But the Walshes are among the only family to suffer such a painful loss. Isaac Kenevan was a typical teenage boy who loved gaming and sports. Last March, a coroner ruled he died as a result of an ‘accident’ after his mother Lisa found him lifeless on the bathroom floor.
The Essex mum believes his death was due to an online ‘choking’ challenge, and says police found two videos on his phone of him taking part.
“My son was a typical teenager, he was a happy boy with friends,” the 51-year-old said. “He was just very curious and enjoyed doing all the online challenges, like the ice bucket and bottle flip challenge. We never thought it would do him any harm.
‘He was such a happy child, he had nothing harmful in his body. I can’t see another family going through what we have.”
Ms Kenevan is campaigning for the rights of parents and coroners to be able to request data beyond three months online.
It is not just exposure to disturbing material that concerns are being raised; social media has also played a role in an increasing number of lawsuits.
Olly Stephens was a nice kid from a sleepy suburb of Reading who fell victim to gang culture when he was targeted online.
The 13-year-old became aware of a friend being ‘molded’ – where a victim is ‘humiliated on camera and then blackmailed with the images. Olly tried to warn the victim’s older brother but the perpetrators in the video accused Olly of treason and began abusing and controlling him, a court heard as his young killers went on trial.
On a Sunday afternoon, January 3, 2021, the teenager said goodbye to his parents, but never returned.
A 14-year-old girl lured Olly to two boys, then aged 13 and 14, who murdered him. The two boys were convicted of murder at Reading Crown Court in September 2021. The 14-year-old girl admitted manslaughter and was sentenced to three years and three months in a young offenders’ institution.
His father Stuart Stephens, 54, heard the screams as his son was stabbed to death just yards from their family home.
“I ran to the field without shoes. I knew he was gone,” he said. “I held his hand and begged him not to leave me. He was completely lifeless.
He described the feeling of “impending doom” as he begged his son to tell him what was happening as the “cheeky” and “funny” boy became a shell of his former self in the run-up to his death.
“We never understood the depth of the abuse he suffered,” his father added. “These apps certainly have a duty of care.”
A Snapchat spokesperson said: “This case is horrific and there is no place for it on Snapchat. One such experience is one too many, but this does not reflect the majority of the 21 million people who use Snapchat in Britain.
“We have clear rules about what is allowed, and teams of moderators who review content reported to us or detected by our advanced technology. Although Snaps disappear, in many cases the evidence does not. We may preserve the content and take action, for example by working with police to support investigations.
“Being a platform that is popular among young people comes with additional responsibilities. That’s why we have extra protections for under-18s, tools for parents to help families know who their teens are talking to, and why we work with experts on all aspects of safety across the platform.”
Ofcom’s first aim is to remove minors from friend suggestion lists and block strangers’ messages. They also hope to improve automatic detection and removal services of harmful content, including dangerous suicide and self-harm content.
Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said the publication of the first codes was a “critical” step in delivering the Online Safety Act by “cleaning up the wild west of social media and making Britain the safest place in the world to be online.” to be”.