Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Julian "Jools" Sweeney was found unconscious in his bedroom in April 2022, has warned parents they should not allow their children to have phones in their bedrooms. She believes his death is linked to social media.
Speaking on The Mirror's new YouTube show Sense Check, Ms Roome advised parents to play "dumb parent" and ask their children to show them how apps like TikTok work, including what appears on their feeds.
Advice for parents
Asked what advice she has for parents, Ms Roome told Sense Check: "First of all, no phones in the bedroom. At night, charge it downstairs, take it out of the bedroom. They're spending hours, they're losing sleep by doomscrolling at night."
She said parents should have a conversation with their child about their social media usage, telling host Nicola Thorp: "I would have sat down with Jools and said, I would play dumb parent and say, can you show me how Instagram works? I don't really understand it. Show me your feed. And I think by looking through their feeds, you'll probably get a feel of what's been sent to them. And how does TikTok work and what's that? And then talk to them about some harm online."
She added: "Some people think, oh it can't be that bad, it's just silly dance routines or something. Educate yourself as parents, make sure when you're handing your child a phone."
Campaigning for change
The bereaved mother, whose campaigning was recognised in a Pride of Britain award this week, said she would also advise parents to "delay, delay, delay" in giving children access to smartphones or social media. She said: "We all know as adults we're addicted to phones. Quite often children have an underdeveloped brain, they all seem to be addicted to their phone."
Ms Roome revealed she is regularly called by parents who have lost a child, saying: "Kids live their lives on mobile phones. But ultimately, we've got to stop children dying in the first place, which is where I spend my time campaigning to change the law around social media, because it's all very well changing the law for when a child dies, but that's not going to enough."
Legal action and data preservation
Ms Roome has been battling to get data from Jools's account on TikTok but has been blocked from accessing his accounts. She is suing TikTok along with a group of other British parents over their children's deaths.
She 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.
In relation to the lawsuit against TikTok, a TikTok spokesman previously told the Mirror: "Our deepest sympathies remain with these families. We strictly prohibit content that promotes or encourages dangerous behaviour. Using robust detection systems and dedicated enforcement teams to proactively identify and remove this content, we remove 99% that's found to break these rules before it is reported to us. As a company, we comply with the UK's strict data protection laws."
