After losing their teenage children to different forms of online harm, bereaved parents separately turned personal grief into historic legal change.
Bound by heartbreak, Ian Russell, Ellen Roome and Esther Ghey have each worked tirelessly to bring about legislative change to protect young lives across the UK.
Ian’s 14-year-old daughter Molly died in November 2017 from an act of self-harm, with the inquest finding that ‘unsafe’ algorithmic social media content related to depression, self-harm and suicide had played a role in her death. Ian’s relentless lobbying via the Molly Rose Foundation helped pass the Online Safety Act and upgrade online self-harm offences to ‘Priority Offences’, holding tech giants more accountable.
Ian says: “If it can happen to our family then it could happen to anybody. I have no doubt that Instagram helped kill my daughter. It separated her from the offline world, dragged her into this machine world, leading her towards her death. Now we’re pushing to regulate companies to make them safe.”
Julian ‘Jools’ Sweeney was 14 when he died in April 2022, having been found unresponsive in his bedroom. His mother Ellen suspects that the tragic death of her beloved son could have been linked to harmful social media, but doesn’t have answers. She has spent the last four years trying to find out why her son died, after a typical day playing with friends, making it her mission to fight for answers from technology companies as the family does not have access to her son’s social media platforms.
Ellen campaigned for ‘Jools’ Law’, to require tech companies to freeze and preserve a child’s digital footprint after a tragedy, granting grieving families crucial data transparency. She has also been a leading figure in the Raise The Age campaign to ban harmful social media for children under 16.
Ellen says: “Jools was the most beautiful, happy boy. I have fought so hard. I wanted to make something positive out of the loss of Jools’ life.
“I’m just a mum who stood up and said ‘This is wrong’. I never wanted another parent to be in my position and be begging for answers. I just want to make the online world safer for every child.”
Brianna Ghey was murdered in February 2023 at the age of 16, stabbed 28 times in a premeditated attack by teenagers who had consumed extreme online violence. Her mother Esther has been campaigned through the Brianna Ghey Legacy Project, which helps children and families build the habits to improve mental health and digital safety. Her work has pioneered smartphone restrictions in schools, rebuilding healthier environments for young people.
Esther says: “As soon as Brianna was connected to her phone, I felt like I lost her. So I feel like I lost Brianna twice.
“I really do think that we should ban social media for under 16s and have a smartphone-free childhood.
“I do have hope that we can change things. I believe that we can empower people to make change.”
Dame Melanie Dawes, Chief Executive of Ofcom, says: “The courage and determination of families who have campaigned for change has been instrumental in bringing online safety issues to the forefront.”
