Three years ago, Stephanie Mistre found her 15-year-old daughter, Marie, lifeless in the room where she had committed suicide.
That day in September 2021 marked the beginning of her fight against TikTok, the Chinese video app that she accuses of driving her daughter to despair.
While searching through her daughter's phone after her death, Ms. Mistre discovered videos promoting suicide methods, tutorials, and comments encouraging users to go beyond simple suicide attemp
ts.
According to her, TikTok's algorithm repeatedly pushed this type of content towards her daughter.
"Three years ago, I had no idea what kind of content social media platforms were pushing toward my daughter," she told the AP, citing physical violence, rape, and suicide as common themes.
Today, Ms. Mistre and six other families are suing TikTok France, accusing the platform of failing to moderate harmful content and exposing children to life-threatening material. Of the seven families, two have lost a child.
When questioned about the lawsuit, TikTok stated that its guidelines prohibit any promotion of suicide and that it employs 40,000 trust and safety professionals worldwide—including hundreds of French-speaking moderators—to remove harmful content. The company also indicated that it directs users searching for suicide-related videos to mental health services.
Scientists have not established a clear link between social media and mental health problems or psychological damage, said Grégoire Borst, professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Paris-Cité University.
Mr. Borst said it was difficult to establish a cause-and-effect relationship in this area, citing a leading peer-reviewed study that found only 0.4% of the differences in adolescent well-being could be attributed to social media use.
Furthermore, Mr. Borst pointed out that no current study suggests that TikTok is more harmful than competing apps such as Snapchat, X, Facebook or Instagram.
