{"id":502,"date":"2024-05-26T00:02:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-26T00:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/26\/mother-of-jools-sweeney-14-who-took-his-own-life-is-fighting-social-media-companies-for-his-search-history\/"},"modified":"2024-05-26T00:02:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-26T00:02:22","slug":"mother-of-jools-sweeney-14-who-took-his-own-life-is-fighting-social-media-companies-for-his-search-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/26\/mother-of-jools-sweeney-14-who-took-his-own-life-is-fighting-social-media-companies-for-his-search-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of Jools Sweeney, 14, who took his own life is fighting social media companies for his search history"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A bereaved mother who has \u201cabsolutely no idea\u201d why her son took his own life aged 14 is fighting social media companies to hand over his search history.<\/p>\n

Jools Sweeney was found dead in April 2022. A coroner was unable to rule his death was a suicide as they were unable to prove he was in a \u201csuicidal mood\u201d, his mother Ellen Roome tells Sky News.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ms Roome says he showed no signs of depression and police have ruled out any third-party involvement.<\/p>\n

As a result, she says she has been left with \u201cabsolutely no idea why he isn\u2019t here anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n

Having read about other teenagers taking their lives after viewing harmful content online, Ms Roome asked various social media companies for her son\u2019s browsing history to shed light on why he died.<\/p>\n

But she says: \u201cSince my son\u2019s death, I have not been able to access information to see what my son was looking at that could have contributed to him taking his own life.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents should have the right to full access to their child\u2019s social media accounts either whilst they are still alive (to protect them) or if they die as in my case.\u201d<\/p>\n

She launched a petition<\/strong> to have the issue debated in parliament. But in light of the general election on 4 July, all parliamentary petitions will be automatically closed on 30 May.<\/p>\n

This leaves her with just days to reach her 100,000-signature target.<\/p>\n

She tells Sky News: \u201cIt\u2019s very ambitious but I need 85,000 signatures to hit my target which might give me access to Jools\u2019s information to find out why he died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the impact of her son\u2019s unexpected death, she adds: \u201cIt\u2019s impossibly hard, it\u2019s horrific, it consumes me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to try the only thing we haven\u2019t tried and that is social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might not be that. But I don\u2019t see why social media companies wouldn\u2019t let me see if they\u2019ve got nothing to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quarter of children addicted to devices<\/strong><\/p>\n

A recent House of Commons Education Committee report<\/strong> suggested there has been a 52% increase in children\u2019s screen time between 2020 and 2022, with a quarter said to be using their devices in an addictive manner.<\/p>\n

MPs on the committee said that while the Online Safety Act will play a role in keeping children safe from online harms, full protection will not come until the Act is fully implemented in 2026.<\/p>\n

They suggest the next government should ban all under-16s from having phones.<\/p>\n

Ms Roome said: \u201cI think there\u2019s a bigger issue than banning outright under-16s.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they still have access to other devices. That is a bigger problem. We need to control what\u2019s on those devices. It\u2019s shocking about what a child can see these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Online safety campaigner Ian Russell, whose 14-year-old daughter Molly took her own life after viewing harmful material, said such a ban would \u201ccause more harm than good\u201d and would \u201cpunish children for the failures of tech companies to protect them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quickest and most effective route to protect children\u2019s online safety and wellbeing is to strengthen the Online Safety Act in the next parliament and we call on all parties to commit to this in their manifestos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Roome adds: \u201cCompanies need to step up and stop waiting for the bill to make some changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

She describes her son as \u201centirely beautiful\u201d and a \u201creally polite young man\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m appealing to anybody out there to kindly share my petition. I want this debated in parliament. Parents need the right to be able to protect their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bereaved mother who has \u201cabsolutely no idea\u201d why her son took his own life…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}