UN speech calls for under-16 social media ban following teen suicide

A Sydney mother, whose 15-year-old daughter, Matilda “Tilly” Rosewarne, took her life after severe social media cyberbullying, called for global reform Wednesday at an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York – banning children under 16 and holding tech companies financially accountable.

In a heartbreaking speech, Emma Mason detailed her daughter’s final moments, as she attempted to take her life for the twelfth and final time on Feb. 16, 2022.

“My brave little girl, determined to look pretty, put on her makeup one last time,” Mason said. “She had planned this moment out in detail. … Exhausted and broken, she just couldn’t fight anymore. She climbed on top of the backyard tree house, she slipped the noose around her neck, and stepped off into whatever experience eventually awaits all of us.”

Tilly was found by her father and 13-year-old sister, who ran into the backyard alone to find her big sister lifeless. 

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While Tilly faced relentless bullying that began in elementary school, Mason said it worsened with the spread of social media. 

In November 2020, a fake nude photo of Tilly – created by a male classmate – circulated on Snapchat, reaching more than 3,000 children within just a few hours.

“The reality of this harm was instant,” Mason said. “Tilly was hysterical and spiraling. I rang the school but because this boy, and his mother, denied he’d even had his phone that day, they said they couldn’t do anything. That night, Tilly attempted suicide by cutting her arms and there was a lot of blood. … She never really recovered.”

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Authorities allegedly told the family it was difficult to “stop this from happening,” explaining they are forced to wait months for information from Snapchat.

As Tilly lost herself in depression, Mason said the bullying continued, with Tilly receiving numerous messages urging her to kill herself.

The grieving mother said Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok played a direct role in her daughter’s death, noting the apps fail to protect young users and contribute to a decline in mental health, concentration, social skills, negative effects on body image, sleep and social isolation.

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“In the same way car manufacturers are responsible for protecting those who drive their vehicles, social media giants must take responsibility for protecting our children, because across the globe, children are suffering,” she said. “They’re dying as a direct result of their social media engagement, and as parents, we need help.”

Snap Inc.’s head of public policy Henry Turnbull in the Asia-Pacific region told a parliamentary inquiry in 2024 that the company works to ensure users feel safe on Snapchat, NewsWire reported at the time.

“This work is never done,” Turnbull said. “Bullying is unfortunately something that takes place in the real world and online. We do work hard to address it, and I recognize how damaging and devastating it can be to those affected. From our perspective, it’s about focusing on the actions we’re taking to address these risks.”

During the 2024 inquiry, Lucinda Longcroft, at the time Google’s director of government affairs and public policy for Australia and New Zealand, said user safety remains the company’s highest priority. 

“We are certainly open to exploring any avenue to ensure the safety of Australian users,” Longcroftsaid. “We never feel we are doing enough to exercise our responsibility. We are constantly working, because the safety of children – as the most vulnerable among our users – and the safety of all our users is of utmost concern and our responsibility. We invest time, resources and expertise to ensure our systems, services and products are safe in the area of mental health and suicide.”

Though Australia recently passed a landmark minimum-age law, forcing social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 years old from having accounts or pay millions of dollars in fines, Mason asked the world to adopt a global ban to hold tech companies financially accountable.

“For parents of lost children, our lives are measured in days, weeks and months from our loss,” she said. “By birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases and other events that serve to remind us of life moving on for everyone else, except us. … Since Tilly died, I’ve sadly had the privilege of meeting so many parents like me … How many more Tillys must die?”

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen followed Mason’s speech, accusing apps of attracting and addicting children to manipulative algorithms that are geared to return profits to tech companies.

“This business is not for charity, but parents live with the risks and harms of this every single day,” von der Leyen said. “Cyberbullying, the encouragement of self-harm, online predators, addictive algorithms. It is up to us to step up for the next generation.”

In Europe, she said an age verification prototype is being tested in France, Spain, Greece, Denmark and Italy.

“It is obvious that this is plain common sense,” von der Leyen said. “We all agree that young people should reach a certain age before they smoke, drink or have access to adult content. The same can be said for social media. … We have no reason to fear the future. The technological revolution has already brought huge benefits to our lives and will bring more. But we can clarify our relationship with tech so that it serves us and not the other way around.”