Why mum believes TikTok is responsible for her son Mason Edens taking his own life
A heartbroken mum has told of how her teenage son turned to TikTok for comfort after a breakup — but days later he was gone. SEE THE VIDEO
When 16-year-old Mason Edens experienced his first break up, he searched TikTok for inspirational quotes to cope with the heartache.
But instead of the positive affirmations he’d hoped for, the star high school athlete was bombarded with disturbing videos glorifying suicide and coaching him how to take his life.
As he scrolled through social media, the algorithm quickly changed from positive videos like Olympic star Michael Phelps discussing overcoming depression to sinister imagery promoting suicide as a proportionate response to a relationship breakdown.
Thirteen days later, he was gone.
Almost three years on, many of the videos Mason ultimately used as an instruction manual to end his life are still online.
His devastated mother Jennie DeSerio still sits in her son’s room in the place where she cradled his lifeless body and told the 911 operator he could not be saved, watching the videos on his phone as she grasps for clues about what more she could have done.
The Arkansas mother did everything parents are told to do and more.
She monitored Mason’s social media accounts, she routinely took his phone to give him breaks from screentime, and had regular conversations about his mental health and the future.
She firmly believes that TikTok and its deadly algorithm are responsible for her son’s death.
Ms DeSerio is one of thousands of families who are now pursuing legal action against social media giants over the devastating harms caused to children around the world.
Her wrongful death lawsuit against ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, alleges a design flaw bombarded her son with harmful content he did not search for.
She is represented by the Social Media Victims Law Centre (SMVLC) in Seattle, a firm dedicated to holding social media companies accountable for the harm inflicted on vulnerable users.
Founding attorney Matthew Bergman launched the firm in late 2021 after seeing Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s shocking testimony before the US Congress alleging the tech giant put lives at risk through its prioritisation of profits over safety.
Mr Bergman and his team of six other lawyers now represent more than 4000 families across 1500 lawsuits against tech companies including TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
In January, the SMVLC will represent plaintiffs in a bellwether trial that could open the floodgates to thousands more cases against social media platforms.
“I saw an opening and an opportunity and a need to hold these companies accountable for the carnage that they’re inflicting on young people,” Mr Bergman said.
“When you look at … the ends to which they’re going to avoid responsibility, as opposed to fixing the problem that, to me, is very disturbing and very outrageous.”
Mr Bergman, who left a successful career representing asbestos victims to open the SMVLC, said social media companies weren’t being held accountable to the extent other businesses were.
The centre represents thousands of families for harms allegedly caused by tech giants including social media addiction, the glorification of dangerous challenges like Subway surfing, fentanyl overdoses from drugs sold over Snapchat, and sexual abuse.
The bulk of SMVLC’s clients are in the US but they also represent families in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.
“That kind of economic guardrail that check on avaricious behaviour that exists for every other industry doesn’t exist for social media, or it certainly didn’t exist until we started doing our cases and demonstrating that they don’t have the immunity that they think they do,” Mr Bergman said.
The bellwether trial alleges companies including Meta, Snap Inc’s Snapchat, ByteDance’s TikTok and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube knowingly designed the platforms to addict users, causing harms including depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide.
The social media giants deny the claims and are fighting the case in court.
When the David and Goliath nature of seven lawyers simultaneously taking on the world’s richest and most powerful tech behemoths is pointed out, Mr Bergman isn’t cowed: “yeah, it worked out okay for David,” he said.
Mr Bergman said he believed instances of harm were on the rise and wouldn’t stop until tech giants were held to account by the law.
“I see it getting worse, particularly with the advent of these AI chat bots that are extremely dangerous in the hands of young people,” he said.
“Social media isn’t going to go away. AI isn’t going to go away but in both cases, you could make the platform significantly safer.”
He applauded the Australian government’s legislation increasing the age of access to 16 - announced after this masthead’s Let Them Be Kids campaign - and said it was imperative the social media companies now enforced the rules.
One of the key members of the SMVLC team is a former Marine, Secret Service agent and cyber security expert who cracks into the phones and social media accounts of children to find out what they had been exposed to before their injury or death.
“It is common that parents have no clue, or parents have limited clues,” Mr Bergman said of the content.
“These platforms are really designed to evade parental oversight, to encourage kids to open multiple accounts, to provide disappearing snaps, and so parents are really paddling upstream, doing the best they can to monitor what their kids are doing.”
It wasn’t until four months after Mason’s death that Ms DeSerio discovered the horrifying videos her son had been exposed to before his death.
“It was the second worst night of my life,” she said.
“To see what was showing up in his ‘For You’ feed, videos flat out telling him to kill himself and how to do it.
“And many, many, many, most of them, the majority of them reference the very means that he used. And there were even videos like kill yourself, to prove your love to her, just unbelievably, scary and terrifying, disgusting.”
It was the discovery of those videos that has spurred Ms DeSerio into action. A week later, she had her first meeting with the SMVLC, and since then has tirelessly advocated for change to hold social media companies accountable.
“I just became determined that I wasn’t going to let Mason’s memory die,” she said.
“I thought my purpose as his mum died that night with him but it didn’t, it just transformed.”
In a powerful moment that made world headlines last year, Ms DeSerio and other grieving parents defiantly held up photos of their children at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok boss Shou Chew were testifying.
Mason had been happy and thriving in the months before his death. He was on the high school football team, was a promising track athlete and had overcome difficulties with dyslexia to make the honour roll.
“He was really flourishing,” Ms DeSerio said.
Ms DeSerio and Mason had an enviable mother and son relationship. They regularly had candid conversations about his mental health.
She often took his phone away to give him space, and the previous school holidays he spent five weeks without a device with no complaints.
But after the break-up, he became increasingly attached to his phone and social media.
On the night of his death, he violently lashed out at his mother in an out-of-character display when she tried to take his phone for the night so he would get a good sleep for school the next day.
“If you look at the last Snapchat that he read … it was 8.13pm, I was on the phone with 911 at 8.13pm,” she said.
“That’s how quickly it happened.”
Ms DeSerio desperately tried to revive Mason.
“I’m mum and I fix everything, that’s what mums do, that’s what we’re supposed to do, that’s what we’re wired to do,” she said.
“But there was just no, no bringing him back, and the details of what happened in that closet, they’re disgusting, and it’s horrible, and I have to live with that, and there’s no words to describe when your baby dies in your arms, and when you’re the one who has to pronounce him dead.”
During her advocacy work, Ms DeSerio said she and other grieving mums and dads had copped criticism from people who blamed parents for the tragedies.
“We’re shamed and it’s reprehensible,” she said.
“The narrative is, if you’re a better parent, you can protect your children from this, and that’s just it’s not it’s not right, it’s not accurate.
“Until society changes their perception on this being a parental problem, I’m afraid we’re not going to make a lot of progress. Society needs to realise that these platforms are built to addict our children, they’re built to harm our children, they’re built to make billions and billions of dollars.”
If you or somebody you know needs help, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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Originally published as Why mum believes TikTok is responsible for her son Mason Edens taking his own life
