Social platforms must share data of child suicide cases

SOCIAL media firms must be required by law to hand over data linked to children’s suicides, say Britain’s biggest child charities.

Bodies such as the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Save the Children and 5Rights have said bereaved families should have access to data if social media leads to serious harm or plays a part in deaths – one of several suggested amendments to toughen the Online Safety Bill.

It follows a five-year battle to access Instagram accounts by the parents of Molly Russell, the 14-year-old who killed herself in 2017 after seeing images of self-harm and suicide on the site.

Meta, Instagram’s owner, released 12,000 of Molly’s posts four years after she died, following an order by Andrew Walker, the coroner at her inquest.

Jessica Elliot, representing the family, said social media had created a “selfsupplying world of suicide material”. In the days before her death, Molly used Instagram more than 120 times a day.

Mr Walker is also overseeing the case of Mia Janin, 14, who killed herself after apparent online bullying. Her accounts were locked for months, despite her access to Tiktok and other sites being central to an inquiry.

Social media firms are not required to release data to police without a court order, or through powers under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 allowing coroners to compel testimony or evidence from organisations. A charity source said: “It takes months and ... companies will try to obfuscate or delay as much as possible.”

The charities want the watchdog Ofcom to be given powers to oversee a mechanism whereby bereaved families, law enforcement and coroners have access to data if a child has died or been seriously harmed. It is backed by MPS who scrutinised the draft Bill.

The charities said social media executives should be criminally liable for breaches of their duty of care, facing up to two years in jail if they fail to protect children. Currently, they are prosecuted if they fail to comply with Ofcom.