Bereaved mother hopes for TikTok 'accountability'

A mother who is one of a group of British parents suing TikTok following their children's deaths said she needs accountability from the social media company. Ellen Roome is in the United States for the first day of the trial, which was requested by the Social Media Victims Law Centre. It's about time we held them accountable, she said, what are you teaching our children?Jools

Sweeney, Isaac Kenevan, Archie Battersbee, Noah Gibson, and Maia Walsh were among those killed while attempting a

blackout challenge,the lawsuit saysWe strictly prohibit material that promotes or promotes unlawful conduct," a TikTok spokesperson said.

Roome has lobbied for legislation called Jools' Law, which will encourage parents to access their children's social media pages if they die. She has been trying to find information from TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, which she believes could help with her determination regarding his death.

The children's deaths, according to the lawsuit,

the foreseeable result of ByteDance's engineered addiction-by-design and programming decisions,

which were

aimed at boosting youth's engagement with TikTok by every means appropriate.

We've got our first hearing with TikTok, and it's called a Motion to Dismiss hearing,Roome said.So TikTok is attempting to kick us out, and our lawyers are saying, 'no, we've got a lawsuit here,'. "We get to the point of knowing that if we get past this stage, we'll find out where TikTok will have to reveal our children's details if they haven't deleted it

Jools, 14, died in 2022 at his Cheltenham, Gloucesteshire, England. At his inquest, a coroner delivered a narrative verdict that ruled out suicide. According to the roome, her son died as a result of an online challenge that went wrong. Isaac, thirteen, was from Basildon, Essex, and died as a result of a so-called choke challenge. Maia, 13, who was discovered dead at her house in Hertfordshire in October 2022, was also participating in an online competition. TikTok's use will be investigated at an inquest into her death. Archie, 12, died mistakenly after a prank or experiment went wrong at his home in Southend-on-Sea in April 2022, despite a coroner As his mother suspected, there were no signs he was doing an online challenge at the time. Roome reported in October that the four original families who brought the lawsuit were joined by Louise Gibson, who said her 11-year-old son, Noah, died in similar circumstances.

The matter is not about money, Roome said.

I want to know what my child was looking at, and if it is on social media, I want accountability.

Our children are being fed junk on social media companies.

They make their products addictive by design so they will naturally have addicted children and adults hooked on them.

These large corporations actually became accountable and took responsibility,she said.I just don't feel they've got any morals about looking after our children properly," Roome said.

The TikTok chiefs expressed their deepest sympathies with these families.We strictly prohibit material that promotes or promotes harmful conduct.

We eliminate 99% that is found to violate these rules before it is reported to us by using advanced detection systems and dedicated enforcement teams to quickly identify and delete this content before it's reported to them,

a TikTok spokesperson said. TikTok is planning to dismiss the lawsuit becaUSe the court has no jurisdiction over plaintiffs primarily based in the United Kingdom and that the First Amendment of the US Constitution to protect third-party material hosted on Tik Tok.

Matthew Bergman, the founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Centre and who is representing the five parents, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that the issue of online bullying was one politics seem to have come together on.Whether you're liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, we all love our children and we can work together on this. We seem to be doing so, and it's very gratifying,he said. Bergman said he found that with acombination of laws,theuse of the civil justice system

to hold companies financially accountable, and that the

court of opinion

reform was likely, and more children could be shielded from online abuse.

We see the public officials and judges and influence makers are really recognizing the immediate and present danger that social media poses to our young people's mental and physical wellbeing," he said.

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