Mother warns of social media 'torment' for teenagers

The mother of a teenager from Leeds who took her own life is warning about the pressure social media can put on vulnerable people.

Kate Cleal's 18-year-old daughter Lily killed herself just before Christmas.

A recent break-up with her boyfriend had upset her but Lily's mother thinks the influence of social media made things worse.

Kate has told Newsbeat parents should be aware of the possible negative effects of the digital world.

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"The night before [Lily] died we were shopping in town. She really wanted one of those onesies with the ears in for Christmas.

"We went into one of the big shops and they only had child sizes in the polar bear onesies so I said, 'Oh just try it on anyway let's see how it looks'.

"I've got a picture of her which I took, and it's timed at about 8:20pm so 15-16 hours before she died.

"She just pulled the curtain back and I photographed her in this spray on polar bear suit with little ears.

Kate shares her last photo of Lily dressed in a onesie on a Christmas shpoping trip

"[The next day] she got up, made her own breakfast, took a photograph of it [and] tweeted something about Mandela [who had] died the night before, and then got ready and went to school.

"[She] went into school and obviously saw something that had upset her, I think she might have seen her boyfriend with another girl.

"She phoned a couple of friends saying she was feeling down, but she came home and took her own life.

"It's a bit of a cliche but it was just completely and utterly out of the blue. [The police] said, 'Lily died earlier today, she took her own life' I just said, 'Are you joking?' and he said, 'No I'm not joking'. It was just completely unbelievable that she'd died.

"We wanted to know everything about that day, so we looked at what she'd tweeted, the texts she'd sent. We kind of knew what her online activity was anyway so we didn't expect to find anything particularly suspicious.

"I guess that the only concern I had was that instead of sleeping she'd be on her phone, she'd be wanting to be talking to someone or other and would lose track of the hours until two or three in the morning.

Lily Cleal and her mother Kate took this selfie last year

"I think [there was] an element of when she was online to see what such and such a person was doing she wouldn't be able to help herself. I wouldn't say her behaviour online was excessive or that she lived in a virtual world or that she'd lost touch with reality.

"But I think when she was feeling down in the days after the break-up then it was a bit of a torture for her.

"I think [social media] is a part of the teenage norm, but we've got to recognise that it does bring pressures when you're vulnerable.

"It can be a great source of delight when you're looking at pictures of yourself, or posting selfies or laughing at funny things on Vine, but if you're feeling down or vulnerable it can be an endless source of torment.

"You've got to stress the value of talking to people face to face and put your phone down."

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