TikTook boss confronted over teen’s unexplained dying and lacking information
Ellen Roome, who believes her son may have died doing an online challenge, is suing TikTok with other British families whose children died in similar circumstances
Ellen Roome has been fighting for years to get data from the TikTok account of her son Julian “Jools” Sweeney(Image: PA)
A TikTok boss has been confronted by an MP over a grieving mum’s battle to get answers about her teenage son’s unexplained death.
Cameron Thomas, a Liberal Democrat MP, raised the case of Ellen Roome who has been fighting for years to get data from the TikTok account of her son Julian “Jools” Sweeney, 14, who took his own life in 2022.
Ms Roome, who believes her son may have died doing an online challenge, is suing TikTok with other British families whose children died in similar circumstances.
In a session in Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Thomas challenged TikTok chief Giles Derrington whether he’d want to know answers if he found his child in the way Ms Roome found her son – unconscious in his bedroom.
In a tense moment, Mr Derrington, who is the platform’s senior government relations and public policy manager, answered: “Yes.” Pressed why TikTok had not therefore released data to Ms Roome, he said TikTok is required to delete certain information under data protection rules – but refused to say whether Jools’s date was still available.
“If I can start by saying I completely empathise with the point you’re making about the horror of the situation that occurred,” Mr Derrington told MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. “We’ve spoken to Jools’s mother on a number of occasions about this issue. There is an ongoing court case so there’s a limit to what I can say, as you’d expect, because it’s important that those things play out.
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“It is worth saying, though, when it comes to the question of data, we have talked to her about that and about the sequence of events, which means we have a duty under GDPR to delete certain data after a certain amount of time.As you’d expect, we have to follow that and that does impact some of those issues.”
He would not answer specific questions on Jools’s data due to the ongoing court case.
Ms Roome has campaigned for years for a change in the law to automatically preserve a child’s data after their death.
In a victory for her campaign, ministers in February announced an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to force social media firms to preserve the data.
Mr Derrington said TikTok is currently “engaged” with the Government on this legislation, adding: “I think there isn’t anyone who would be opposed to finding a good solution to this that means data is preserved in such circumstances.”
Ms Roome, from Cheltenham, is also passionate for a social media ban for under 16s, which the government is currently consulting on.
Her story inspired Lauren Cowell, Simon Cowell’s wife, to join the campaign. Ms Cowell told The Mirror: “To sit with parents who have lost their children and to know that this is something that we do have the power to help change… it could be any one of our children. It could be mine, it could be yours.”
The debate over a social media ban erupted in the UK after Australia implemented one at the end of last year, while other European countries including Greece and Spain have put forward similar plans.
During yesterday’s parliamentary session, Rebecca Stimson, UK Director of Public Policy at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said a ban “risks promising parents something that can’t be delivered”.
She warned that “technical limitations on age assurance” was causing problems in Australia, adding: “We’ve seen, for example, marketplaces spring up in Australia for people selling their ID to lend you ID if you’re trying to get back online.”
Ms Stimson said youngsters were also circumventing the ban by logging out of their accounts and searching social media platforms through search engines like Google.
Polling released by the Molly Rose Foundation, a UK online safety charity, on Monday revealed three in five (61%) Australian 12 to 15 year-olds still have access to one or more accounts on restricted platforms.
The survey showed major social media firms have retained a majority of their child users, with 53% of previous TikTok users, 53% of YouTube users and 52% of Instagram users still able to access an account on these sites.
MPs are expected to vote on a Lords’ amendment calling for a social media ban today(WED). The Government is not supportive of the move as it is currently consulting on a host of online safety measures, including a social media ban, curbs on additive app features and overnight curfews. MPs rejected a similar proposal for a ban last month(MAR) by 307 to 173 votes.
