Outrage Driving Social Media Law Changes, Not Campaigner Arguments
Online safety campaigners are not "winning the argument" but rather "outrage" is driving rapid changes in the law, according to a prominent children's rights campaigner and filmmaker. Baroness Kidron, founder of the digital child safety organisation 5Rights, has issued this stark warning to the Press Association, stating that recently passed legislation has failed to meet campaigners' expectations.
Failures in Data Preservation for Child Death Investigations
The crossbench peer has tabled a suite of amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, which is due for debate in the House of Lords on Tuesday. These amendments aim to better preserve social media data that could be relevant to authorities investigating child deaths. Lady Kidron revealed that the current mechanism "isn't working", with coroners and investigators often unaware of their powers under the Online Safety Act.
She has called for data preservation notices to become automatic, arguing: "Whatever the circumstances are of a child's death, the coroner, the police and parents need to know what's been going on. This is not about apportioning blame to another user, to the site, to the child. It's about having the information so that one can come to a conclusion about what the contributing factors are."
The Virtual World's Entanglement with Reality
Lady Kidron emphasised the fundamental problem of how society perceives the digital realm: "I think we used to conceive it as 'other' and 'different', but the virtual world is increasingly entangled with the real world and certainly for young people. And the same rules apply - if someone died, you'd look around the room, you'd look at what they were doing for the last few days, etcetera. And the same rules must apply online."
She warned that people become confused by the term 'data', clarifying: "Data isn't 'data', data's 'information'. It's the circumstances."
Personal Tragedies Highlight Systemic Failures
Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney died while attempting an online challenge, has echoed these concerns. She told PA that families are spending "years fighting for answers that should never have been denied". Ms Roome explained: "Things are moving more quickly now because the scale of harm has become impossible to ignore. Too many children have been hurt or lost, and too many families, including mine after Jools died, have spent years fighting for answers that should never have been denied."
She added a sobering assessment: "Progress is welcome but it is still not fast enough. Laws only protect children if they are actually used and right now, vital digital evidence is still being lost in the early hours after a child's death. Until data is preserved automatically and investigations are digitally competent from the outset, we will continue to react to tragedy rather than prevent it, and social media companies will remain beyond accountability because the evidence of what children were shown no longer exists."
Concerns About Political Expediency Over Proper Solutions
Lady Kidron, whose film credits include Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, expressed concern that the Government might act out of "political expediency" rather than implementing properly considered solutions. She stated: "We're winning the crisis - it's a crisis. I don't think we're winning the argument, really. What we're doing is we're winning the outrage. And the Government will probably out of political expediency do the wrong thing which is, just bring in a ban without thinking about the political context or the regulatory context."
The peer voted for an under-16s social media ban last Wednesday as part of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, but called in the Lords for "a better answer than a ban" that tackles "root harms" while still giving children internet access. She argued that if some digital platforms were "a toy or a fridge or an airbag, they would be recalled by now", warning that tech firms had "created a state of exceptionality which actually translates into a state of lack of liability".
Broader Campaign for Child Protection Measures
Meanwhile, Ms Roome has joined other bereaved parents in calling on the Prime Minister to back a statutory ban on mobile phones in schools. In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, a group led by Esther Ghey - whose daughter Brianna was murdered by two teenagers - urged support for an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The group stated: "A consultation is not action, it is a delay, and while we wait, parents and teachers continue to struggle to protect young people, and children are being harmed."
Government Response and Ongoing Consultation
The Government is currently consulting on measures to bolster children's wellbeing online, which could include implementing a minimum age for social media access and removing features considered addictive. A Government spokesperson responded: "We've been clear - we will take action to make sure children have a healthy relationship with mobile phones and social media. This is a complex issue with no common consensus and it's important we get this right. That's why we are launching a consultation to seek views from experts, parents and young people to ensure we take the best approach, based on the latest evidence."
Regarding data preservation, the spokesperson added: "Families who have suffered the devastating loss of a child must never feel that the system is working against them. That is why the Online Safety Act compels companies to share data and cooperate fully with coroners' inquiries where there is evidence of a link between a child's death and their social media use. We have strengthened this further by giving coroners the power to require platforms to preserve data immediately, so vital evidence cannot be deleted. We will continue to monitor these powers and will not hesitate to act where evidence shows we need to go further."
