Tilly Rosewarne: Parliamentary inquiry told of how teenage girl took her own life after severe cyber bullying
- Tilly Rosewarne took her own life in February, 2022
- Parliamentary inquiry heard of impacts of social media
- READ MORE: Tragedy as person falls to their death from a cliff
A mother grieving her 15-year-old 'brave little girl' who died by suicide has shared how her daughter felt 'broken' by the bullying she faced on social media, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.
For its second public hearing on Friday, the probe continued to explore the 'influence and impacts of social media on Australian society' by inviting representatives from Meta, Snap Inc, TikTok Australia and Google to give insight into the changing landscape.
The committee is working to learn how the decision of Meta to abandon deals under the News Media Bargaining Code will impact Australian media.
The inquiry was told about Matilda 'Tilly' Rosewarne, who died by suicide after being bullied on social media, including Snapchat, in February, 2022.
Tilly's mother, Emma Mason, wrote in her submission to the inquiry about the harm her 'brave little girl' had faced in the lead-up to her death through cyber bullying.
The inquiry was told Tilly's privacy had been violated after a student at her school circulated on Snapchat a photo of a body with the head cut from the frame, claiming it was the teenager among her classmates.
'This was her 12th attempt to end her life. She was just 15 years old,' Ms Mason wrote in her submission.
'She was exhausted, tired and broken.'
![Tilly Rosewarne died by suicide in February, 2022. She had been the victim of shocking cyber bullying](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/06/28/07/86683747-13577905-Tilly_Rosewarne_died_by_suicide_in_February_2022_She_had_been_th-a-11_1719554532013.jpg)
Tilly Rosewarne died by suicide in February, 2022. She had been the victim of shocking cyber bullying
Snap Inc head of public policy, Henry Turnbull, told the inquiry that Snapchat, which is operated by Snap Inc, worked hard to provide users every opportunity to feel safe on its platform.
Mr Turnbull encouraged users to block and report accounts they felt were being harmful towards others.
'I think there's a misconception on platforms like Snapchat that if you report somebody, they will know,' he said.
'That is not true. Within 10 minutes, we respond to reports.'
Snapchat launched new resources for people dealing with bullying with Australian specific content like Reach Out.
![Tilly's mother has shared her story with the parliamentary inquiry looking into the impact of social media](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/06/28/07/86683743-13577905-Tilly_s_mother_has_shared_her_story_with_the_parliamentary_inqui-a-12_1719554532016.jpg)
Tilly's mother has shared her story with the parliamentary inquiry looking into the impact of social media
Liberal MP Andrew Wallace, who shared Tilly's story with the inquiry on Friday, said the teenager's death was a 'parent's worst nightmare'.
Mr Wallace said her story was 'just one story of hundreds of stories' he heard from the community about the correlation between social media and teens who died by suicide.
Mr Turnbull said Snapchat was always working to continue to improve its systems to ensure people feel safe online.
'This work is never done, bullying is unfortunately something that takes place in the real world and online,' he said.
'We do work hard to address it and I recognise how damaging it can be and how devastating it can be to those people affected.
![Tilly (pictured) was found dead by her father near her old cubby house at the family's home in Bathurst, in the central west of NSW, on the morning of February 16, 2022](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/06/28/07/56436025-13577905-Tilly_pictured_was_found_dead_by_her_father_near_her_old_cubby_h-a-10_1719554531994.jpg)
Tilly (pictured) was found dead by her father near her old cubby house at the family's home in Bathurst, in the central west of NSW, on the morning of February 16, 2022
'From our perspective, it's about focusing on the actions that we're taking to address these risks.'
Meanwhile, Google government affairs and public policy Australia and New Zealand director, Lucinda Longcroft, said the platform also held the safety of its users to the highest standard.
'We are certainly open to exploring any avenue of ensuring the safety of Australian users,' she said.
'We never feel we are doing enough to exercise our responsibility.
'We are constantly working because of the safety of children as the most vulnerable among our users, but the safety of all our users is of utmost concern and our responsibility.
'We invest time, resources, and people's expertise in ensuring that our systems and our services or products are safe in the area of mental health and suicide.'
![Tilly's story was told to a parliamentary inquiry on the impacts of social media](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/06/28/07/86685021-13577905-Tilly_s_story_was_told_to_a_parliamentary_inquiry_on_the_impacts-a-13_1719554532521.jpg)
Tilly's story was told to a parliamentary inquiry on the impacts of social media
Meta vice-president and global head of safety, Antigone Davis, told the committee that she didn't think social media had harmed children.
'I think that social media has provided tremendous benefits,' Ms Davis said.
'I think that issues of teen mental health are complex and multifactorial. I think that it is our responsibility as a company to ensure that teens can take advantage of those benefits of social media in a safe and positive environment.'
Mr Wallace told Ms Davis 'you cannot be serious'.
'You cannot be taken seriously Ms Davis when you say that,' he said.
Ms Davis said Meta was 'committed to trying to provide a safe and positive experience' for all users, especially teenagers.
'For example, if a teen is struggling with an eating disorder, and they're on our platform, we want to try to put in place safeguards to ensure that they have a positive experience and that we are (not) contributing or exacerbating that situation that (they) may be dealing with,' she said.
Senator Sarah Henderson told the inquiry she'd recently seen a video on an Instagram live-stream that depicted the 'most horrendous bashing of a school student by another student'.
Senator Henderson asked Meta what type of 'mechanisms' were in place to stop these videos from being live streamed.
'Because the bottom line is you are not stopping this and there are multiple cases where it demonstrates your failure to stop this sort of conduct online,' she said.
Ms Davis said Meta took videos like the one Senator Henderson saw 'very seriously'.
'We have policies against that kind of content,' she said.
'We build classifiers to try to identify that content, proactively.'
The committee is expected to table its interim report by August 15, with the final report due by November 18.
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