Please see below a message from EST E Safety Training who support the school in keeping our children safe when online-

Hi Everyone, 

We are putting out this post following a large number of distressing posts that appear to have gone out over the massively popular app TikTok over the past 24 hours.

It would appear that a user of TikTok used the app to live stream themselves committing suicide.

There are a significant number of posts on the app where children are crying stating that they watched the person commit suicide. Many children are talking about being traumatised and this is backed up by the way they are presenting on the app.

We have thought long and hard about putting this post out. In similar situations surrounding suicide we have been accused of scaremongering (MoMo challenge) but if children are seemingly upset or distressed for no apparent reason you may find that the TikTok posts may have been viewed by them and if we don’t disseminate the information you may not realise the connection.

We are fairly sure that TikTok have taken down the initial footage and are working hard to take down subsequent reposts. The majority of clips now show children crying and talking of the extreme nature of the live screen.

We would prefer people not to look for this content as the young peoples reactions that are being posted are distressing.

In our experience it is likely some of the content will end up being shared outside of TikTok.

In the extensive work we carry out in schools large numbers of children tell us they regularly see references to suicide online and this situation seems to underline the size of the issue.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post

Best Regards

John and John