It’s a confession… or almost. Education Minister Pap Ndiaye said Thursday on BFMTV that the suicide of 13-year-old Lindsay, who killed himself after being bullied at school, is “a collective failure”.
“Obviously, this is a collective failure, the death of Lindsay, her suicide, it is a tragedy for her loved ones, for National Education and for the country, as for the suicide of n’ any young person, ”testified Pap Ndiaye Thursday evening, a few hours after the family of the teenager announced that they had filed a complaint in particular against the rectorate and Facebook.
Four complaints filed
Three complaints have been filed against the management of the college, the Lille academy and the police in charge of the investigation for “non-assistance to anyone in danger”, detailed Thursday the family lawyer, Me Pierre Debuisson, during a press conference in Vendin-le-Vieil (Pas-de-Calais), where the schoolgirl was educated.
A fourth targets the social network Facebook “completely failing” in terms of content moderation and the fight against “hate speech”, according to the lawyer, denouncing the continued harassment against Lindsay, in particular on Instagram.
“It’s a chain of events: the main instigator of the violence was first temporarily excluded on November 14 (…) then definitively excluded on February 27 and we end up with the tragedy of May 12,” said Pap Ndiaye. on BFMTV, evoking the problem of “cyberbullying”, which in this case took over from bullying at school.
The “responsibility” of social networks
For Pap Ndiaye, social networks “have their share of responsibility”. According to him, it is necessary to “put them under more accentuated pressure”. “With other ministries, we are going to consult and act extremely firmly with regard to social networks because beyond what they can say, we know that their reaction is too slow”, he said. hammered.
In a press release, Pap Ndiaye promised to “invite the main managers of social networks to exchange, in particular the Meta France group (Facebook, Instagram), Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry responsible for the Digital Transition and Telecommunications”.
The minister also claimed to follow Lindsay’s suicide file “personally”. Citing the judicial and administrative investigation, he assured to draw “all the conclusions with regard to the personnel if necessary and especially the general conclusions on the way in which we can move forward”.
A “reinforcement” against harassment
Pap Ndiaye announced a “strengthening of the anti-harassment unit”. Referring to the toll-free numbers on cyberbullying (3018) and bullying at school (3020), he explained that “the resources allocated to them will be increased to recruit more psychologists, social network experts and listeners”.
2023-06-01 20:24:09
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