Bereaved families file US lawsuit against TikTok over access to children’s data

Bereaved families have filed a lawsuit against TikTok in the United States over efforts to access their children’s social media accounts because they “want answers” about their deaths.

The Social Media Victims Law Centre (SMVLC), a US-based legal resource for parents of children harmed by social media use, said it had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the video-sharing platform and its parent firm, ByteDance, on behalf of four families in the UK.

The lawsuit, filed in the US state of Delaware, claims Isaac Kenevan, 13; Archie Battersbee, 12; Julian “Jools” Sweeney, 14; and Maia Walsh, 13; all died from injuries suffered while taking part in online challenges in 2022.

It accuses TikTok of pushing dangerous prank and challenge videos to children to boost engagement time on the platform.

According to TikTok, it does not allow content showing or promoting dangerous activity or challenges, and it proactively finds 99% of content removed for breaking these rules before it is reported to the firm.

Jools’s mother, Ellen Roome, 48, a businesswoman from Cheltenham, said the families hope to force a response from tech firms on the issue, and that she “just wants answers” about her son’s death

She added that social media firms had so far refused to give her access to her son’s accounts, saying a court order was required to do so.

Ms Roome said she had been “shocked” to learn that she “wasn’t entitled” to Jools’s data, and said it was “the only piece that we haven’t looked at, to look at why he took his own life”.

She told the PA news agency that it had been “horrendously difficult” to “not understand why” her son had died.

“One day, all of the four children, none of them had mental health issues, it was completely out of the blue, they all decided to take their life – more importantly, I don’t think they intended to take their life,” she said.

“This is our opportunity to get answers. Its incredibly hard and emotional to lose a child, and this has given us a possibility of understanding exactly what happened that night.”

Ms Roome has also been campaigning for “Jools’ Law” to give parents the right to access their children’s online activity after they die – and the issue was debated in Parliament last month after an online petition for the campaign gained more than 126,000 signatures.

“Without social media companies releasing it, I still don’t know what he was looking at, was there somebody weird messaging him? I just don’t know,” she told PA.

“So my fight has just been, ‘all we want is our children’s data’.”

She added: “I know that I was a loving mum to my son, and I know my son loved me, so I don’t really care what everybody else says. I want to know the truth.

“We shouldn’t have had to go this far to get our children’s data. Why didn’t they just say, ‘here’s the data, I hope you get some closure?’, or some sort of answer from it.

“They could have handed this over and said, ‘let me help you’ – and nobody has ever tried to help us.”

Matthew P Bergman, founding lawyer of the SMVCL, and who represents the families, said: “TikTok’s algorithm purposely targeted these children with dangerous content to increase their engagement time on the platform and drive revenue.

“It was a clear and deliberate business decision by TikTok that cost these four children their lives.”

Asked how she responded after being told the lawsuit had been filed, Ms Roome said: “Oh my God, we’ve got a chance to get answers.

“There’s an overwhelming excitement of a possible chance of answers, but there’s also that underlying grief of ‘we’re doing this because our children are dead’.

“It’s very weird emotions. On the one hand you’re pleased, but I don’t know how to put it into words … it’s difficult, it’s been a difficult journey.

“I just feel I want answers. It’s my son and I think anybody – those with children and without – can hopefully understand that it’s a mother’s love.

“I’m not stopping. There’s nothing in this world which would stop me. I want answers. This isn’t about money or anything like that. I want the answers.”