Andy Burnham’s £1m social media push risks ‘conflict of interest’ on child safety, bereaved mother warns
A mother who believes her 14-year-old child died in a TikTok challenge gone wrong has said the government should be prepared to shut platforms down if necessary
The Prime Minister's expanding use of social media could present a “conflict of interest” as the government decides whether to press ahead with new child safety measures, the mother at the heart of a landmark case against TikTok has warned.
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Ellen Roome, whose son Jools died aged 14 after what she believes was an online challenge gone wrong, said ministers must be ready to take action against platforms that fail to protect children.
The government is on a recruitment drive in a bid to improve its digital communications, with the Cabinet Office advertising 13 roles focused on bolstering the prime minister's TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube output.
The roles will cost up to £1m per year collectively, and consist of videographers, social media producers and creative leads.
“If the government is spending £1m on social media platforms, we need to make sure there’s no conflict of interest there,” Ms Roome, who has been campaigning for stronger online safety laws since her son’s death, told LBC.
“They need to step up and enforce the sites and be prepared if they need to shut the sites down. Even if they have spent that money, then that’s what they’ll need to do.”
Andy Burnham has said relatively little about online safety publicly since becoming Prime Minister, but his spokesperson has confirmed that he will be pressing ahead with plans initiated under Sir Keir Starmer to ban social media for children under 16, describing it as a ‘critical first step'.
Ms Roome said she did not oppose the use of social media in itself, but wanted the government to tackle harmful platform features.
Ms Roome believes her 14-year-old son Jools died in 2022 in a TikTok challenge gone wrong, and she has been campaigning for tougher social media regulations to keep children safe online ever since.
TikTok has claimed that the platform has strict prohibitions against content promoting dangerous behaviour, proactively removing 99% of dangerous content before it is even reported.
But Ms Roome insists more must be done, calling for changes to algorithms, the removal of location-sharing for children and action over endless scrolling.
“We know the platform is harmful. These points have been proven over and over again, and he [Andy Burnham] now needs to step up and make strong changes,” she said.
Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said the expansion of the government's social-media operation should be matched by a tougher approach to regulation.
“While No 10 expands its use of social media for political messaging, the real test for online safety is whether Andy Burnham will break free from the ‘don’t rock the boat’ tech-friendly approach that characterised his predecessor’s time in office.”
He said: “The new Prime Minister has so far kept many of the same Downing Street advisers, so we wait to see if he will deliver a distinctive vision for online safety, or more of the same flawed approach we saw from Keir Starmer.”
The warnings come after Labour MP Jess Asato called for all government departments to quit X as she prepares to take Elon Musk’s AI company xAI to the High Court.
“I’d like to see all government departments come off X,” the Lowestoft MP told LBC.
Ms Asato said she was targeted with sexualised AI-generated images after criticising Grok, xAI’s chatbot.
She said users took a photograph from her X profile to create fake bikini pictures, as well as a video she described as showing her being chloroformed by a group of men and prepared for sexual assault.
“It is an image that’s been taken from my social feeds without my consent and then used to demean, to belittle, and degrade me as an elected public figure, but also as a woman,” she said.
Ms Asato said millions of sexualised images of women and children were created using Grok in December and January. The overall number of people affected is not known, though she said women and girls make up around 99% of victims of sexual deepfakes.
Baroness Beeban Kidron, the crossbench peer and online-safety campaigner, backed Ms Asato’s call for public bodies to leave X.
“If we don’t want a world with X beating each other up and having no boundary, and Grok sexualising largely women and children, then don’t put money in those coffers,” she told LBC.
Professor Lorna Woods, Professor Emerita at the University of Essex and an adviser to the Online Safety Network, said the government should question why “essential elements of public communications” were being placed in the hands of services based outside the UK.
She described the alleged abuse of women in public life as “horrendous”.
“If they can’t control them, they should be taken off the market,” Professor Woods said of AI products.
Ms Asato’s solicitor, Lucy Audibert of AWO, said the claim could become a “watershed” case for people seeking redress over AI-driven abuse.
“We’re really looking at the frontier of AI-driven harm,” she said. “If there is no remedy in this case, then the law is broken.”
Ms Asato's legal team claim that xAI breached data protection law and misused her private information. xAI has not yet filed a defence.
After criticism earlier this year, X said Grok would no longer allow users to edit real people into revealing clothing in jurisdictions where that is illegal.
The platform has previously said that it "takes action against illegal content on X by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary".
The platform has also said it continues to "have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content".
A Government spokesperson said: "We completely understand the profound concerns raised by families and campaigners about online safety. Our focus remains on ensuring platforms follow the law and protect women and children from harmful content.
“We regularly assess government’s use of social media to ensure we communicate effectively with the public."