Maia Walsh, 13, was said to be engaging in ‘concerning’ content on the social media platform in the months leading to her tragic death in Hertford on October 6 2022.
A pre-inquest review heard that the teenager had displayed ‘high levels of ideation’ about dying on TikTok even writing online that she was not ‘scared’ of death.
In one troubling post on March 6, 2022, the young teen was asked what she wanted to be when she was older to which she responded: ‘I don’t think I’ll live past 14.’
She said in another post that same day: ‘I’m not scared of what is beyond death. I’m scared of the pain I’ll feel before it’s all over.’
The schoolgirl was tragically found dead in her bedroom exactly seven months later just weeks before she was due to turn 14 on October 30.
Lawyers representing her devastated family said Maia was following several troubling hashtags including the words ‘broken’, ‘depression’ and ‘crying child’ on the platform.
Jessica Elliott of Leigh Day said that she also had an account which featured a username that ‘correlated with the month of her passing’.
The barrister said it may have expressed an ‘intent to die on a particular date on the month that she did in fact’ die but added: ‘We don’t know anything about that account.’
‘As far as her family is concerned, that (TikTok) took up the vast majority of Maia’s time on her device,’ she told Hertfordshire Coroners' Court.
She said the teen had at least four accounts, but the family did not have access to two of them including the account referring to the date.
‘We don’t have the full picture…We’ve only really got the partial picture,’ the lawyer said.
She added it was important to get more information from the platform to understand ‘how Maia's online world was interacting with her mental state’.
The hearing was held to consider if Maia’s online activity before her death should be included in the scope of her inquest and what steps needed to be taken to obtain the relevant data.
‘It is clear Maia was interacting with material that is concerning within a month of her death,’ Area Coroner Jacques Howell told the pre-inquest review hearing.
He said he would be using Schedule 5 powers under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to request data related to her social media activity focusing mainly on TikTok.
Investigating officers from Hertfordshire Police said they were working on completing a report on a significant amount of data pulled from the girl’s iPad and iPhone.
Officer Sophia Denman told the court that a ‘forensic download’ had been conducted and ‘there’s a lot of information’ leading up to the moment of her death.
A full inquest hearing, set to last four weeks and take place at a later date, will consider whether Maia died through suicide.
Her father, Liam Walsh, sued TikTok and its parent firm ByteDance in the US last month in an effort to force the firm to release Maia's data.
He joined the bereaved families of three other children - Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee and Julian "Jools" Sweeney.
The wrongful death legal case claims the four died attempting a so-called ‘blackout challenge' in which participants hold their breath until they pass out because of a lack of oxygen.
The claim said parents want access to their children's account data to ‘get answers’ about how they died.
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