'I want to understand why my son is not here'

A bereaved mother who is campaigning for an amendment to the government's Data Bill has said she will not stop until she understands why her son took his own life.

Ellen Roome's 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney took his own life in 2022 in what she believed was a social media challenge.

She has been campaigning to get an amendment to the law that would force social media companies to give bereaved parents access to their child's data in the event of their death and this week met with government ministers to discuss the proposal.

"The Data Bill is a good thing and it will help people and [the government] look certainly like they're trying to make it work for people," said Ms Roome.

"I think they will listen again if it doesn't work and I'll make a lot of noise about it if it doesn't," she added.

"For me, I don't want to stop. I'd like to try to understand why my son is not here."

MPs passed The Data (Use and Access) Bill last week, but the change proposed by Ms Roome was not voted on.

The proposed bill would allow bereaved parents to request their child's user data from up to 12 months before their death.

Mobile phone data is automatically deleted after 90 days.

In Jools' case - police did not access his phone until months after his death and weeks after the data had been deleted.

Ms Roome from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has since been campaigning to get access to Jools' social media data.

Some social media companies told her that they cannot release the data because of issues around privacy and others have said they would only do so if a court order was given.

"I want it compulsory that when a child dies, social media data is automatically preserved and requested and not just that it might happen if it's asked for," said MS Roome.

"I haven't really been able to grieve and I don't know whether that would allow me to.

"I just don't understand what happened to my seemingly normal 14-year-old and that's what's so wrong."

The government's Online Safety Minister, Baroness Jones, said that the government had introduced "new legislation on data preservation orders to make sure that social media accounts are frozen so that families in the future, if there is a tragic death of a child, can get access," but that "coroners will need to access that information."

Under the new bill, coroners have more power to request data from social media providers but only they have the power to do so.

"I think it's really positive and the Data Bill will help newly bereaved parents so long as they request and preserve that data," Ms Roome told BBC Breakfast.

"That's been my argument the whole way through. Unless the police get some training and the coroners actually ask for that information you will have parents like me that didn't ask for the data."

The new proposals will not affect Ms Roome's situation, as an inquest into Jools' death has already happened.

If she wanted another inquest, she would have to go through the High Court.

After meeting with ministers, Ms Roome said she left feeling "disappointed" and that whilst she sees improvement, they are "little steps and little steps for other people" but she "doesn't get an answer for Jools."

Ms Roome has previously joined campaigners in the US and said she had received messages about her work from all over the world.

"I've always said that if I can use Jools' story to make a difference to one other person then it's worth sharing."

"If that awareness has helped people educate their children on what to look for then it's worth doing," she added.

"I hope there's a little boy somewhere feeling very proud [of me]."

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