Social Media firms forced to disclose details of dead childrens accounts

New laws have been announced that will require social media companies to provide bereaved parents with the content of their deceased children's accounts.

Under these laws, Ofcom, the online watchdog, will be given additional powers to request personal data on behalf of bereaved parents and coroners. This move comes after a series of high-profile cases where parents were denied access to their deceased children's social media accounts.

Social media bosses who refuse to comply with requests to hand over the content could face penalties, including up to a year in jail and fines of up to 10% of their companies' global turnover. The aim of these changes to the Online Safety Bill is to prevent situations similar to that experienced by the parents of Molly Russell, a 13-year-old girl who took her own life. Molly's parents were denied access to her social media accounts for nearly five years, and even when some data was provided, it revealed disturbing content, including 16,000 posts encouraging self-harm, anxiety, and suicide during her final months.

Under the new laws, the data to be provided to bereaved parents would include the content their child viewed or engaged with, the algorithms that may have driven harmful material to them, and how they engaged with such content. These changes follow a campaign led by Baroness Kidron, who tabled the amendments, along with bereaved parents like Ian Russell, Molly's father.

Culture Minister Lord Parkinson announced the amendments to the Online Safety Bill in the House of Lords, emphasizing the need to ensure that companies cannot withhold critical information from grieving parents. The former Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, described this as a landmark moment in providing bereaved families with a compassionate path to justice, as they have often faced delays and a lack of responsiveness in the past.