Social Media suicide video prompts warning for parents to keep children offline including Tik Tok

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Schools and social media safety experts are warning parents and children to avoid viewing a video on TikTok and other social media platforms that shows an American man taking his own life and explaining what to do if they have already seen it.

Safe on Social, Social Media Pty Ltd, CEO Kirra Pendergast sent an alert to 7,000 schools today, advising them to warn students and parents about the content.

Ms Pendergast also posted this warning on the cyber safety consultancy's Facebook page

We strongly recommend keeping your children offline today if possible, and heavily supervise all social media interactions until this content is removed. Check with your children to determine if they have viewed this clip. They are likely to be extremely distressed.

Ms Pendergast said the video, which was originally live streamed on Facebook had also been shared on Twitter and Instagram but had been taken down from most platforms after being reported. The video was still being viewed by thousands on TikTok and was being embedded within other videos designed to appeal to children. It's like what we called Elsagate which was when Elsa from Frozen got some full on treatment with people posting two minutes into a video some obscene things happening to Elsa. It's a kind of trolling. They're luring kids in with videos of kittens and puppies, then it goes to this very, very graphic video.

A TikTok spokesperson said the clip was livestreamed on Facebook on Sunday night (US time) and was circulated on other platforms including TikTok. Our systems have been automatically detecting and flagging these clips for violating our policies against content that displays, praises, glorifies, or promotes suicide. We are banning accounts that repeatedly try to upload clips, and we appreciate our community members who've reported content and warned others against watching, engaging, or sharing such videos on any platform out of respect for the person and their family.

Facebook said in a statement it had removed the original video on the day it was streamed and had used automation technology to remove copies and uploads since that time.