Social media 'spiral' found after sister's death

Warning: This article contains details and references to suicide

A woman whose 13-year-old sister took her own life says the "spiral that she was going through" was evident from her social media history.

Blake Gallier's death in October came as a surprise to her family, from Gravesend in Kent.

Her sister Tayla Gallier, 19, told the BBC she looked through Blake's phone after her death, having felt she "needed to know" what content her sibling had seen prior to her death.

Gallier found her sister had watched "videos talking about self-harming, suicidal ideation" and had been going through a spiral "night after night".

According to the older sibling, the content Blake Gallier had been viewing "was progressively getting more serious and severe".

The 19-year-old said it "wasn't social media that killed my sister" but she thought it was "the tipping point".

"No one gets the idea of doing that to themselves from school, from their family, from their friends," she said.

"The only place you can get that idea is from social media and I think that's the biggest problem."

Tayla Gallier said she did not think all social media was negative but that it was "awful that that sort of stuff can be allowed on there".

"Clearly there are not enough regulations and they're not enforced enough," she told the BBC.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been contacted for comment.

• If you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

Tayla Gallier described her sister as "full of energy all the time".

"She was one of the most annoying people ever," she said. "I think when you have younger siblings they do everything to get on your nerves."

The girls' mother Gemma Best said the younger sister was a "very normal teenager" who was the "life and soul at every party" and "absolutely loved her friends".

Best said: "It's just awful as a parent, but I wasn't aware of all of the apps that she had on her phone."

She says she sometimes still finds it "hard to believe" that her daughter is not here because "there were no signs in any shape or form".

Blake Gallier's family are setting up a charity - Blake's Pink Promise - in order to "keep Blake's memory alive", in part by funding counselling in schools.

"We've currently counselled 77 children and two adults across four different schools and we're looking to go into two further schools in October," Best said.

"We want to support our local community because they're the ones that are helping us to fundraise."

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