With the prevalence of social media continuing to grow, it’s easier than ever for anyone to become a well-known person on the internet. With platforms like TikTok and Youtube, young people can instantly become well-known due to a picture or video of theirs going viral. Sixteen-year-old Charli D’Amelio is currently the most followed person on TikTok, amassing about 100 million followers within a year of downloading the app. This doesn’t mean that she hasn’t had her share of controversies. 

The main thing that D’Amelio and her sister Dixie were called out for occurred during the first episode of their new web series “Dinner With the D’Amelios.” The first episode featured the family’s personal chef Aaron May cooking a Mediterranean-themed full-course meal for the family. Controversy arose when the sisters were seen making faces and acting grossed out by the adventurous food served during the meal. 

D’Amelio lost approximately one million followers after this clip went viral, and received hurtful and cruel comments on her various social media platforms as well. D’Amelio responded to the criticism saying, “I would never in any way want to be taken as disrespectful, especially from an out-of-context, 15-second clip.” D’Amelio also added that she has received comments and messages on social media telling her to hurt herself and “blatantly disrespecting the fact that I’m still a human being.” 

D’Amelio also made it known how these comments affected her. “I just feel like that’s not OK, and if this is the community that I’m in and the community that I put myself in, I don’t know that I want to do that anymore,” D’Amelio said. “At the end of the day, just be nice. Don’t tell people to kill themselves. I feel like it’s not that hard.”

While we all need to be held accountable for our actions, there is a point in which we need to decide what’s worth calling people out over. A 16-year-old is bound to make mistakes or come off in a way that is less than favorable. 

D’Amelio acting in a way that appears bratty or entitled, whether you agree with her or not, is not the most important thing we need to be offended or concerned about right now. This appears to be nothing more than a harmless joke, and it doesn’t appear to be worth getting angry over. Making death threats towards someone online is never okay, and it is definitely not the solution when you think someone is acting entitled or bratty. 

We are in a time right now where the actions of influencers and celebrities are more scrutinized than ever, and we have taken holding people accountable to the extreme. Telling someone how they come off to others in a constructive way is useful, but death threats and deliberately cruel messages are never okay, especially to someone so young.