Two grieving mums in Essex in "full support" of law petition to access children's social media accounts

Lisa Kenevan, from Basildon, and Hollie Dance, from Southend, express their support for "Jool's law" which would see tech companies duty-bound to allow parents to see what their children are doing online.

The petition for "Jool's law'" was set up by Hollie and Lisa's friend, Ellen Roome.

Ellen Roome, from Cheltenham, is calling for parents to be able to access their children's social media accounts.

Ms Roome lost her 14 year old son, when he 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 "suicidal mood", says Ms Roome.

Ms Roome says he showed no signs of depression and police have ruled out any third-party involvement.

"He had been absolutely fine before his death, there were no obvious warning signs."

Having read about other teenagers taking their lives after viewing harmful content online, Ms Roome asked various social media companies for her son's browsing history to shed light on why he died.

After being told she needed a court order to see her son's accounts, Ms Roome wanted to do more to keep children safe online.

"I am still none the wiser to what my child actually watched before he died"

Lisa Kenevan and Hollie Dance have both been campaigning for schools to raise more awareness about the dangers of online trends and dares that their children could be viewing.

Their work has since been backed by Internet Matters, Southend West MP Anna Firth and Mrs Kenevan's local MP Stephen Metcalfe, who represents South Basildon and East Thurrock.

Hollie Dance lost her son Archie in April 2022 after finding him unconscious at home in Southend.

Ms Dance says she is in "full support" of Jool's law,

"Jools and Archie had their accidents within 6 days of each other. Both were in exactly the same circumstances, the same method."

She believes Archie may have been taking part in a blackout challenge.

"For both of us, it seems the only way to get our child's data, is to go through another inquest which would cost absolutely thousands. Or get this law approved.

"All I know is that Archie watched TikTok on the day of his accident for 7 minutes. And he received a message from TikTok an hour and a half before his accident."

"I am still none the wiser to what my child actually watched."

"It's a question I would like answered."

The coroner ruled that Archie's death was an "accident".

He added, Archie “had not intended to harm himself but had done inadvertently during a prank or experiment that went wrong”.

Archie was left on life support for 4 months and passed in August 2022.

Lisa Kenevan lost her son Isaac, at 13-years-old.

A coroner ruled Isaac died due to "misadventure" after Mrs Kenevan found him in the bathroom in March 2022.

Mrs Kenevan from Basildon, believes his death was due to an online “choking” challenge after the police found two videos of him completing the challenge on his phone shortly before he died.

She says, "this law should already exist."

"I had enough evidence of what Isaac was doing because he videoed himself."

"He got it from a social media platform, he didn't just decide to put his hands round his neck doing the choke challenge."

"Once the police found the evidence of Isaac doing this act, they didn't search further back on his phone. I don't know what else is on there. I've tried to look but I'm not a techy person."

"It should be a natural path of helping a parent, holding their hand, because you are not in a right thinking space when you've lost your child."

Both Lisa and Hollie will continue campaigning in schools and raising awareness when term starts on September 2nd 2024.

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