A bereaved mother has launched legal action against TikTok following the death of her 14-year-old son, after allegedly losing his life while attempting one of the platform's trends.
Speaking to GB News, Ellen Roome, mother of Jools Sweeney, has fought for more than two years to access her son's app data, which would provide answers as to what content he was watching before his death.
Mr Sweeney died in April 2022 after allegedly attempting the "blackout trend" on TikTok - with an inquest ruling the teenager took his own life.
Recalling the events leading up to her son's death, Ms Roome told GB News: "Jools had been playing for the day, he had been with a group of friends out and about playing football. I had been out for the day, but I was ringing him throughout the day, as I always would have done.
"I rang and he said, 'Mum, I started a fire pit, I used to your nail varnish remover', and I remember saying, 'oh gosh, just be careful'. He was being a typical teenage boy.
"We can see on our security camera him saying goodbye to his best friend at 8.46pm that evening and he's laughing and saying, see you later. And then I came home an hour and a half later and found him unconscious in his bedroom."
Asked by host Ellie Costello what she believed happened to Jools, Ms Roome admitted: "The truth is, I don't know. There was nothing found offline. His inquest ruled there was nothing, he had no mental health problems, he wasn't being bullied. So what did happen?
"I went to the social media companies and said I want to see what he was looking at online, because I didn't feel my 23-minute-long inquest substantially looked into why my child wasn't here. And the social media company said no."
Ellen Roome has taken legal action against TikTok following the death of her son after he allegedly attempted a trend on the platform
|ELLEN ROOME / GB NEWS
Citing a similar case to her son's, Ms Roome explained: "At the time, Archie Battersby, another little boy, had had the same accident six days before Jools, and everybody kept saying, 'could it be the blackout challenge like Archie Battersby?'
"And that's when I raised that potentially it could have been that. And the police said to me, 'it might be, but we can't prove it'.
"I went to the social media companies and said to TikTok, show me what he was watching, and they refused. As a parent, you have no legal rights to see what your children look at online."
Asked by host Mark White what reasoning TikTok gave for refusing her access, the mother told GB News: "I've had various comments.
"I've sat in Parliament with representatives from TikTok, and they said they might be sued for release of data. And the MPs actually challenged them on that and said, 'who's going to sue you?'
"And if there is data of other children, they could redact that, they could take off all the names. I don't need to see who said it, I want to see their messages, I want to see what algorithms was fed to him, and they've refused. Now they're saying they may well have deleted user data, but that hasn't been confirmed."
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Jools Sweeney was just 14-years-old when he died in April 2022
|ELLEN ROOME
Noting that Gloucestershire Police have agreed to "look into the case again", she revealed: "About 10 days ago, Gloucestershire Police agreed to relook into things, and they have done a forensics download of Jools's device back in April 2022 when he died. But it wasn't looked at forensically.
"So I'm waiting for the police now to review that forensically, which might open up new angles."
Criticising TikTok's handling of her case, Ms Roome argued: "But ultimately if the social media companies wanted to give me answers, they could say, 'here you go, bereaved parent, this is all we've got on your son, I hope you find out what happened'.
"And they've refused, which I think if they had nothing to hide and they didn't have dangerous things on their platform, why couldn't I see it?"
Ms Roome told GB News that she backs a social media ban for under 16s
|GB NEWS
In a statement, a a TikTok spokesman said: "We strictly prohibit content that promotes or encourages dangerous behaviour."
Asked by Ellie if she would like to see a ban on social media access for Britons under the age of 16, Ms Roome concluded: "100 per cent. I was just with four other bereaved parents, and I asked them if they thought the same, and they did.
"And I spoke to Esther Ghey and Lorin LaFave yesterday, so I know of six bereaved parents, and all of us 100 per cent think we should definitely, definitely take this off children.
"And we're not saying get rid of the internet, we're saying get rid of harmful social media and let these children be children."