Mother from Cheltenham bringing legal action against TikTok in the US over her son's death
A mother from Gloucestershire who believes her 14-year-old son died in a 'blackout challenge' on TikTok is bringing a landmark legal case in a US court against the social media giant.
Ellen Roome, who was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours for services to children’s online safety, is joining three other families in bringing the legal action later this week.
The case is being brought against TikTok's parent company ByteDance and alleges the company's algorithms promoted harmful content to children.
In response, TikTok offered its deepest sympathies to the families involved and said it prohibits, detects and removes 99% of dangerous content before it's reported. The platform also said it complies with the UK's strict data protection laws.
Ellen's son Jools Sweeney died at his Cheltenham home in April 2022 as a result, she believes, of him taking part in a blackout challenge that was popular at the time.
Since her son's death, Ellen has been unable to access his online data - leading to her campaign for Jools' Law in the UK, which would allow for the automatic preservation of a child's online data immediately after their death.
"If they had nothing to hide, why would they not show me his data?" asks Ellen. "I've sat in Parliament with members of TikTok and begged for my son's data with other bereaved parents, and they just won't release it."
Ellen is joining forces with three other British parents who also believe their children died while taking part in the blackout challenge, but don’t have data to prove it. They will fly to the US this week for the first stage of the legal battle.
Jools - who went to Balcarras School in Cheltenham - had several social media accounts, some opened when he was just 11. Ellen suspects TikTok algorithms showed Jools harmful content that he hadn’t searched for and she believes social media is inherently dangerous for children.
"If they (TikTok) have had involvement that means my child is not here, then I think it should be a corporate manslaughter case. And that is where I would go with it next, which I guess is why they don't want to release data to me. But I don't know that and I may never prove it and it may be too late."
On the day Jools died he'd played in a boat, cooked pizza and toasted marshmallows over a fire pit with his best friend Monty.
But less than two hours after Jools waved goodbye to Monty, his mother would come home to find him unresponsive in his bedroom. The busy, happy 14-year-old had probably killed himself by accident, the coroner found.
Ellen and her son's friends suspect he was attempting the blackout challenge.
Since Jools’ death the law has changed and coroners can now demand social media data, but it doesn’t apply retrospectively to cases like Jools'.
Ellen says: "My life has been ruined. We all know our children are being fed harmful material. I just want the right to know what was shown to him."
In response TikTok told ITV News that its "deepest sympathies" remain with the families who are bringing the legal action.
A spokesperson added: "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 per cent 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."