‘It is too late, our boys have gone’: Grieving parents tell Ofcom to ‘step up’ over social media content
Social media platforms must do more to stop their algorithms from recommending harmful content to children, Ofcom has said.
The regulator has published its draft children’s safety codes of practice laying out the new standards it will expect tech giants to follow to protect children under the Online Safety Act.
But two mothers who believe their children died as a result of copying dangerous social media challenges say they feel “belittled” by Ofcom over its failure to listen to grieving parents.
Sky News has spoken to the mothers of Archie Battersbee, who died aged 12 after a “prank or experiment” went wrong at their home and Isaac Kenevan, 13, who is believed to have died after taking part in a choke challenge on social media.
Archie Battersbee died aged 12. Pic: Family handout/PA
“They should be listening to us as bereaved parents,” said Isaac’s mother Lisa.
“Ofcom have got the power, the policing, and we feel like we’ve been belittled, they’ve said certain things but there’s just no action at the moment.”
Archie’s mother Hollie said: “I’ve seen a handful of parents that are now going through what we’re going through and it’s heartbreaking… in a civilised society, this should not happen.”
When the government passed the Online Safety Act last October, it came with new enforcement powers for Ofcom.
Both Hollie and Lisa campaigned tirelessly to get the bill passed and both are frustrated by how painfully slow the process is proving to be.
Ms Kenevan said: “This law has been put in place but nothing has really changed, which is frustrating for us, it’s almost like an insult to us because we’ve put in so much work.
“It is too late, our boys have gone… but Ofcom should really step up and hold their feet to the fire… step in fast to stop the content being in there in the first place.”
Read more:
E-gates back working at UK airports after travel chaos
Porn star describes awkward and unexpected ‘sexual encounter’ with Trump
Pubs may be able to extend opening hours during Euros – but there’s a catchfinals
Taming algorithms
Ofcom’s draft code of conduct includes robust age checks, improved complaints procedures and a commitment from social media platforms to take action to tame algorithms which recommend harmful content to children.
Fail and they could in theory be fined 10% of their global turnover.
Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes told Sky News: “In less than a year, we will be able to enforce against these codes and what I’m saying to the tech industry today is don’t wait for that moment.
“Over the next few years, we will see that change and we are going to drive it forward with every possible tool that we’ve got.”
‘Big step change for the industry’
Ofcom denies excluding people from its consultations, insisting victim groups and bereaved families have been among the 15,000 children and 7,000 parents it has already spoken to.
Dame Melanie said: “Those families who’ve lost children through what’s happened to them online, we ask them please do carry on working with us.
“What we’re proposing today is such a big step change for the industry, please work with us and talk to us, so that we can get this right.”
For the parents of Archie and Isaac, ever-present is the dread over how many children remain at risk.
Ms Kenevan said: “While these laws are trying to be put in place unfortunately there are more and more children dying and that’s the most frustrating thing because we’re in a club that we don’t want to be in and we don’t want anyone else joining that club.”
Meanwhile, Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther has told Sky News that mobile phone companies must “take responsibility” for what children view online.
Esther Ghey has campaigned for greater regulation for mobile phone companies, as well as young people’s access to mindfulness therapies, since two teenagers – Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe – were jailed in February for 22 and 20 years respectively for the “exceptionally brutal” murder of 16-year-old Brianna in Warrington.
Ms Ghey said: “It would be great if we could have, at point of purchase, software that helps parents monitor what their children are doing.
“There is software out that can flag up concerning words and then that alerts the parents that the child is looking at self-harm images or searching on the extreme side of it, the things that Scarlett Jenkinson was searching.”
“The parent can then be responsible for their child and do something about it,” Ms Ghey said, who has started a petition in support of her campaign.
Watch the full interview with Esther Ghey on The UK Tonight on Sky News at 8pm on Wednesday.
Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as he appeared in court in London.
The British comedian and actor, from Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.
The charges relate to alleged incidents involving four separate women between 1999 and 2005.
The 49-year-old, who has been living in the US, was flanked by two officers as he pleaded not guilty to all the charges at Southwark Crown Court today.
Russell Brand appears at Southwark Crown Court. Pic: Reuters
Brand stood completely still and looked straight ahead as he delivered his pleas.
The comedian, who has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations were first aired two years ago, is due to stand trial in June 2026.
Read more from Sky News
Man who sold poisonous diet pills jailed
Fraudster who sold fake Scottish tea jailed
Tom Daley on LGBT rights
Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court on Friday
He previously told his 11.2 million followers on X that he welcomed the opportunity to prove his innocence.
The allegations were first made in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches in September 2023.
As Friday’s hearing finished, Brand replaced his sunglasses before exiting the dock and calmly walking past reporters.
Even as someone who has grown up in the public eye, Tom Daley has vulnerabilities and concerns to finally reveal.
The five-time Olympic medallist has an even greater perspective as the British diver who first competed at the Games aged 14 in 2008, who is now retired and a father of two.
Having grown up in the public eye when social media was still in its infancy, Daley is deeply troubled by the toxicity online, especially for someone with an opinion.
And the 31-year-old has spoken out from a young age – from LGBTQ+ rights to bullying and mental health – but he is ready to go further now.
“There’s lots of things I think we’ll look back on this last five, 10 years of human history as being quite shocking in a way,” Daley said in an interview with Sky News.
Tom Daley competing at Tokyo 2020. Pic: PA
“When social media came to prevalence – and cancel culture and people not being allowed to make any mistakes or be able to share too many opinions – it can be very scary and intimidating for certain groups of people.
“I think it definitely pits lots of people against each other and I think we always have to remember that we’re all in this together at the end of the day.
“And there’s so many more important things – being able to come together as one human race and I know that sounds very like hippie-dippie.
“But it really is as simple as that, about just being kind to each other.
“Where has that kindness and compassion gone because everybody feels like they have something to say about very small groups of people.”
(L-R) Tom Daley and Matty Lee celebrate winning gold in the Men’s Synchronised 10m Platform Final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Pic: PA
A front row seat to LA 2028
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion revealed he was gay in 2013 and went on to marry Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.
They now live as a family in Los Angeles – the city hosting the 2028 Olympics.
Tom Daley and Noah Williams took silver at the Paris Olympics last year. Pic: PA
Having retired from diving after a final silver medal at Paris 2024, Daley will have a front row seat to the Games taking place in an America where Donald Trump has seemed to roll back LGBTQ+ protections early in his second presidential term.
“It is scary in some parts of the world how the rights of LGBT people are kind of being reversed or they’re being dangerously threatened,” Daley said when asked about Trump.
Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black at the Brit Awards 2023. Pic: AP
“It’s something again where minorities have to come together for the greater good because it is scary.
“And you may see someone else’s rights going away and I think it’s important that everybody, especially minorities, come together because it won’t just be one group that gets targeted.
“Once one group has been targeted, it will move on to the next, and the next, and the next.
“I think the most important thing is staying visible. I think lots of people ask, ‘What can you do to be an activist? What can you do to an advocate?’
“I think it’s being truly and authentically yourself. As long as you’re happy, your friends and family are happy, and you’re not hurting anyone else, then I think just being visible is a great form of activism.”
Donald Trump and his wife Melania at his election night rally on 6 November 2024. Pic: Reuters
Trump election victory was a ‘shock’
“For lots of people living in the West Coast bubble, it was like a bit of a shock when Trump won the election in November,” Daley said.
“But I think it’s also given everybody a wake-up call. I just always believe in leading with kindness, care and compassion and trying to make life worth living for every single person.”
Daley knows what it is like to feel targeted for abuse.
The sports star attends a screening in London for Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds. Pic: PA
In a new documentary featuring family video growing up, Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds, there is a sense of disbelief that he gave interviews as a child talking about being bullied in school after his Olympic debut at Beijing 2008.
“I never really saw it back then as something that was strange because it’s something that I had lived and grown up and just was part of how my life existed,” he said.
“But, looking back on it, I kind of was like, ‘Oh my gosh, imagine if it could have all been so different’.”
London 2012 poster boy
During the build-up to London 2012, Daley was the poster boy of the home Olympics.
But he was dealing with bulimia and body dysmorphia in private. It’s still difficult to talk about, knowing people would comment on how he seemed in great shape.
“But that’s not what an eating disorder is,” he said. “An eating disorder is not being able to think about your body, what you eat, what you put into your body rationally.
“And I think that’s something that people don’t necessarily understand with eating disorders, which is why going through that, I went through it alone.
“Because I was embarrassed to be thinking about those things. I didn’t think anybody would believe me.”
To this day, Daley feels people online are dismissive of his concerns. In interviews, he grates when it is pointed out that in retirement he is not fat.
“I’m constantly reminded of that,” he said. “So it’s definitely something that triggered the way that I think about my relationship with food.”
This is not to take away from how fondly Daley looks back on a career that saw him reach the pinnacle with Olympic gold in 2021 at the pandemic-delayed Olympics.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump furious over Wall Street’s ‘TACO’ dig
Scottish government scraps plan for new national park
There is no sign of coming out of retirement again as he did in Paris last year.
“I feel incredibly proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in terms of my perseverance and resilience through lots of different things,” he said. “I do miss being on that diving board.
“It is like there is no other feeling than being on top of a diving board in a competition where you’re putting all of the work that you put in into that 1.6 seconds and I think I will forever miss that.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway