Ellen Roome and Jools Sweeney (Image: Ellen Roome)
A mother's campaign to find out why her son died has won cross-party backing in Parliament.
MPs considered calls to change the law after 126,000 people signed a petition started by the mother of Jools Sweeney, who took his own life aged 14 in 2022.
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Ellen Roome believes clues to explain why her “happy and healthy” son died might be found in his social media activity, which included using Instagram and TikTok. However she has been unable to access his accounts.
Her proposed “Jools’ Law” would give parents the right to see their deceased children’s social media activity without needing a court order, and the proposal received support when MPs held a three-hour debate.
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Ms Roome said: “We don’t know why he died.
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“After the inquest I said, ‘we still don’t have any answers’. The only thing we hadn’t looked at was social media.
“It turned out Jools had three different Instagram accounts, three different TikTok accounts and a Facebook account.
“I went to the social media companies and said I would like to look at his data.
“We know there was nothing offline. He wasn’t being bullied, he had lots of friends, there was nothing wrong at school, he had no mental health issues.
“I wanted to know what he was looking at, whether it was negative, whether he was being messaged by anyone inappropriate.”
Social media has been a factor in the deaths of some young people in recent years. Molly Russell, from Harrow in London, died aged 14 after being exposed to materials related to suicide and self-harm on social media. An inquest in 2022 found she died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and “the negative effects of online content.”
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Murray Dowey, from Dunblane, ended his life in 2023 aged 16 after being tricked into sending compromising pictures by criminals posing as a girl on Instagram.
It is not known whether Jools intended to take his life, and the coroner at his inquest said that it was not clear that he was suicidal. Ms Roome believes one possibility is that he intended to take part in an online “challenge”, where social media users dare each other to carry out activities.
New laws introduced by the Government will allow coroners to access online information when investigating the death of a child, if they believe social media played a role in their death. However Ms Roome argues this is not sufficient because coroners might not request the information. In any case, this will not help parents if a inquest has already taken place.
She said: “I think it is entirely wrong that you have a child as a minor signing terms and conditions to use social media and then as a parent we are just left to not have any access to that, and it seems thousands of others also think it is wrong.”
Speaking in the debate, Conservative former schools minister Damian Hinds urged the Government to strengthen planned new laws. He said: “Perhaps the data bill is the opportunity to put this beyond doubt, that the parent has an absolute right ultimately, with the right safeguards, to see the information related to their child.”
Labour MP Lola McEvoy said: “Ellen deserves answers but unbelievably she is not allowed access to the data that might provide them and that is so wrong.”
A Department for Science, Innovation and Technology spokesman said: “No family should have to experience the devastating consequences of losing a child. From this summer, the Online Safety Act will introduce strong safeguards to protect children from harmful content online, including material encouraging dangerous stunts and challenges.
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“We expect these laws to make the online world safer but will not hesitate to go further, acting on the evidence to ensure parents have peace of mind knowing their children can grow up safer online.
“In tragic cases where a child’s death is linked to social media, the Online Safety Act empowers coroners to access more data from platforms when investigating the death of a child.
“We recently strengthened these measures through new data laws to ensure information can be preserved after a child’s death to help bereaved families get the answers they need.”
A TikTok source said the business had arranged a meeting with Ms Roome and a senior member of staff explained that it no longer had a search history for Jools, because the law requires companies to delete people’s personal data unless it is needed for running a business.
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The company said there are exceptions to this law, such as if police request for data to be preserved, however it said it was not contacted by officers until 2024 when the information was no longer available.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, was invited to comment.