Grieving Mum Sues TikTok After ‘Painful’ Court Hearing
A British mother suing TikTok after her son’s death calls a US court hearing “very painful,” as the social media lawsuit reignites the child online safety debate.
A British mother suing TikTok following her son's death has described the first hearing in the US as "very painful."
Ellen Roome, 49, from Gloucestershire, has been campaigning since the death of her 14-year-old son, Julian "Jules" Sweeney, at their home in Cheltenham in 2022.
She traveled to Delaware this week with a group of parents who are part of a lawsuit claiming all their children died while performing the "Blackout Challenge."
A TikTok spokesperson said: "We strictly prohibit content that promotes or encourages dangerous behavior."
In a statement posted on social media on Friday, Ms. Roome said: "We now have to wait for the judge's decision on whether the case will be dismissed or we will be allowed to proceed to the discovery stage.
"For the court, it's about motions and procedures. For us, this is about our children." "About our dead children."
The lawsuit filed in Delaware State Superior Court by the Social Media Victims Law Center alleges that Jules, Isaac Kenevan, 13, Archie Battersby, 12, Noah Gibson, 11, and Maia Walsh, 13, died while participating in an online challenge.
It claims that the children's deaths were "the predictable result of addiction created by ByteDance's design and programming decisions," which were intended "to compel children to maximize their engagement with TikTok by any means necessary."
Room sold her 18-year-old financial business to campaign for Jules' Law, legislation that would give parents the right to access their deceased child's data without a court order.
She is also pushing for major changes to social media to improve online safety for children.
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Following Jules' death, a coroner concluded in his investigation that Narrative ruling, which ruled out suicide. Room believes her son died after an online challenge gone wrong.
Since her son's death, Room has been trying to obtain data from TikTok and ByteDance that she believes could reveal what happened.
In an online update, Room said: "Listening to abstractions in legal debate, while the truth of our loss lurked silently behind every word, was incredibly painful. This is our experience, our grief, and our unwavering determination to find the truth and protect other children. Whatever the outcome, we came forward. We spoke out for our children." And we will continue to do so."
'Deepest condolences'
TikTok has filed to dismiss the case, arguing that UK residents are suing US companies that do not provide the social media firm's services in the UK and that existing US law protects the platform from liability for third-party content. A TikTok spokesperson said their "deepest condolences" are with the families and that "content that promotes or encourages dangerous behavior" is strictly prohibited on the platform.
They added, "As a company, we comply with the UK's strict data protection laws."
It is understood that the online challenge, which parents claim is responsible for the deaths of their children, has been blocked on TikTok since 2020.
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