Tech Firms Could Be Forced To Hand Childrens Data To Bereaved Parents
An amendment to the Internet Safety Act has been proposed to help grieving parents access data about their children's social media activity that could shed light on their death.
Baroness Pepin Kidron said she would move the House of Lords to require tech companies to hand over that data.
An inquest into the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell has concluded that social media content seen contributed to her death "at least in part".
Molly committed suicide in November 2017 after viewing content related to depression, self-harm and suicide.
Baroness Kidron, a child online protection campaigner and non-compete member, said the amendments were intended to prevent a repeat of the five-year wait for Molly's family to have her case investigated because of delays in accessing large amounts of data relating to her social media. . accounts and online activity.
Details of the proposed changes are yet to be determined, but The Telegraph has reported that social media companies could be fined for failing to provide data under the proposed change.
"The family have not been denied the opportunity to understand the circumstances of their child's death," Baroness Kidron said.
The primary goal of the Internet Security Bill should always be to prevent such a tragedy. But when tragedy strikes, it's inhumane for grieving parents to beg for information and wait years for the truth.
I have spoken many times to government ministers that this will be a government amendment, but if necessary I will ask the House to vote on it.
"No politician, regardless of their political persuasion, would vote against him. Doing so adds to the pain of families who have already lost loved ones, and condemns future loved ones to even more pain."
Russell Yan, Molly's father, supported the corrections, saying: “Often it would be easy for us to give up and provide little or no digital evidence.
Instead, with the help of many people, we decided to provide the data needed to learn lessons, improve online security, and save lives.
"After a thorough investigation of Molly, we believe it is important that in the future, after the death of a child, the authorities have easier access to data, of course.
"A more compassionate, efficient and responsive process is needed to meet the needs of families and authorities."
With the long-delayed bill expected to return to Parliament soon, campaigners have called on the government to stop waiting to pass internet safety legislation.
