Save our kids from this dystopian web
In a heartbreaking interview, the mother of murdered travel blogger Gabby Petito spoke of her torment in an emotional ITVX documentary.
I felt a chill as Nichole Schmidt revealed she knew her beautiful daughter was dead from the
Images of suicide and self-harm flash endlessly. Dark, depressing content is streamed direct to personal devices on a daily basis. A multitude of voices, some of them robots, chatter constantly, telling you to look better, be better, have more fun, travel more, make more friends… be happy. While, ironically, everything is geared to make you sad.
You’re set up to fail. It all sounds like something out of a futuristic, dystopian movie where everyone is being brainwashed. One where, eventually, some moment she was officially missing. “I knew in my heart she was gone. It was a mother’s instinct,” she said. “I just knew.”
Gabby, 22, had gone travelling across America with fiancé Brian Laundrie, documenting the trip on social media. When she vanished on August 27, 2021, the tech whizz hacks the system, cracks the code at the 11th hour and saves humanity.
Except that it’s not a film. It’s all alarmingly real. And it’s all a nightmare.
For the family of 14-year-old Molly mystery sparked a media frenzy as internet sleuths tried to solve the case.
The tragedy ended with the discovery that Gabby had been strangled by Brian,
23, who then killed himself.
The case itself and how it exploded the internet was fascinating but Nichole’s words were the most affecting: “She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
The Online Safety Act needs to be toughened up quickly
Russell, who killed herself after exposure to a barrage of harmful online content, they are still living this nightmare.
Molly, from London, had seen more than 2,000 damaging posts in the last six months of her life. Seven years on, her dad Ian says too little has been done to regulate social media and warns it’s costing young lives.
“In some respects, the risks for teens have actually got worse,” he says. “It’s a matter of urgency.”
This week the parents of 11 children whose deaths they link to social media activity urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer to do all they can to force tech giants to tackle the risks on their platforms.
Chilling
Those children include 12-year-old Archie Battersbee, who died after an online prank went wrong; 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, murdered after one of her killers saw violent material on the dark web; and 14-year-old Mia Janin, who took her own life after being relentlessly cyber-bullied.
As a parent, this makes my blood run cold. The dangers, from being groomed and trolled to turning to self-harm or violence, are chilling. How many more children are struggling in secret?
New research from Girlguiding has revealed that girls’ happiness levels are at a 15-year low. More than two-thirds of girls aged 11 to 21 feel ashamed of the way they look compared with online images. What world are we living in where fake “perfect” pictures are being used to pressure kids for profit? Where misery is monetised? Businesses, brands and influencers should be forced to own up when images have been manipulated. Tech platforms must stop algorithms that recommend harmful and toxic content, and use robust age checks. If something is not done soon, if the Online Safety Act is not toughened up fast, we are hurtling towards inevitable tragedy – and there is no action hero to save us.