This is GK lying to This Morning producers, no wonder GK wasn't allowed to mention this topic when interviewed on this morning. Nothing has been changed, the threads remain untouched.
I think Kathleen Stock from UnHerd described this more accurately with a few stray comments caught by the daughter but most of the comments were outrage at the lack of safeguarding that few others cared about. Then when influencers saw a tragedy to exploit for their own gain they were all over it like the despicable vultures they are.
Says a lot that one article in a minor publication did far more research to be balanced than a production that had 3\4 of a year. Not that I fully agree with Stocks take, but at least she showed the bigger picture.
In contrast, the story of Princess Bliss Dickson — the teenage child of influencer Sophie-May Dickson, who took her own life in February, allegedly after Tattle Life criticism — is genuinely dark and disturbing. It really does suggest we urgently need to change the norms governing female social media use — though in a way that has nothing much to do with gossip websites per se.
At the time of her death, Princess Bliss had her own TikTok account where she would pout and grind in a heartbreakingly self-conscious way for the camera, as girls these days often do. But unlike most teenagers, she had already been in the public eye for most of her life. Aged four, she was featured in a 2014 television documentary, getting a spray tan. The show was about mothers — including her own, Sophie-May Dickson — who would painfully tease hair weaves in their tiny daughters’ curls, dress them in elaborate frills and furbelows, and cover them in make-up and glitter. Some comic genius at Channel 5 called the show “Blinging Up Baby”. Gleeful pieces in the tabloids followed, and a year later the mother also appeared on This Morning to discuss the excessive “pampering” of her two girls. The die seemed to be cast. From then on, Princess Bliss and her sister would be turned into living dolls full-time — and when television ceased to be interested, Sophie-May’s social media accounts would take up the slack.
Reportedly living in supported accommodation at the time of her death, the girl is said to have read critical comments on Tattle Life, both about her mother and herself, before her overdose of prescription medicine. Campaigners are implying that these must have been instrumental in her act. In advance of the release of a coroner’s report, it is hard to see how this connection can be made for sure; not to mention that it flies in the face of all professional advice about avoiding speculation in such cases.
But what we can say, perhaps, is that the role of Tattle Life in the awful saga is somewhat double-edged. Certainly, it was a place where cruel things were being said about the mother at the time, with a few strays caught by her blameless daughters too; and I wonder if posters really think about what it is like for a loyal child of a target to read this stuff. But equally, a lot of outrage was being expressed on the girls’ behalf about the circus-like spectacle being made of their young lives. And in that sentiment, at least, the anonymous posters weren’t wrong. In fact, they were drawing attention to an issue of child safeguarding few others seemed to care about.
unherd.com