An Edinburgh mother whose daughter took her own life after being exposed to harmful online content is warning more must be done to protect youngsters.
Ruth Moss’s daughter Sophie Parkinson took her own life at the age of 13 after being exposed to dangerous material on social media.
Ruth remembers her daughter as “a beautiful person, a beautiful human being”.
“She was all the things that you love about a person. She was funny, kind, and gentle. She was a really sensitive person; she was the first person that would be there helping somebody if they needed help and she was clever.
“I remember in amongst the sadness of the end, I remember lots of laughs as well.”
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STV NewsBut she says her daughter’s death left her feeling like she had failed in her most important role.
“The one thing that I was meant to do as a parent was to keep my child safe and to bring her up to be a happy, functioning adult and I felt like I totally failed in that.
“It felt very much like I lost a battle to try and protect my child online because I had had those conversations. I’d done the things that I thought would keep my child safe online and it hadn’t worked.”
Ruth is now part of Bereaved Families for Online Safety, a campaign group that pushed for tougher rules to protect children online.
“My social media feed was full of cat videos and Sophie’s social media feed was full of devastating and horrific material and it was eye-watering. The things that Sophie saw should have never been seen and it was that that made me determined to improve the situation.
“I wasn’t going to change things for Sophie but if it could improve things for another child, or another family out there, then that was only going to be a positive.”
Ruth MossOnline Safety Act
The UK has now introduced some of the biggest changes to online safety laws.
Platforms operating in the UK must implement age verification to check whether the user is under 18, filter harmful material from children’s algorithms and appoint a named person responsible for child safety. They must also carry out an annual review of risks to children.
Both Meta and TikTok have created Teen Accounts which is to protect young people on its apps and say “99%” of potentially damaging material is removed.
But campaigners say dangers remain.
Those involved in online child protection however believe the key way to keep your child safe starts at home and want to see adults engaging in open conversations with their children.
Cybersafe founder Annabel Turner said: “I cannot emphasise enough how different what is appearing on children’s feed is compared to what is appearing on your feed or on their parents and guardians feed.
“The children are seeing a completely different range of content.
“It’s very gendered, it’s very intense a lot of the time and the only way that you can understand what is happening on the child’s device, with algorithms being the way that they are at the moment, is to just be trying to sit next to them and trying to get a window on to their actual feed.
“It’s a conversation that we have to develop with our child really gently.”
Ruth Moss‘Parents can’t do this on their own’
Ruth says parents are still being pitted against tech giants.
“Are we really asking parents to be able to control everything that happens there, against trillion-dollar companies? I think that’s an unrealistic ask.
“Parents can’t do this on their own. We need tech companies to take some accountability, not all accountability, there is still a role for parents to make sure that their children are kept safe, but there needs to be some accountability for tech companies.”
She also believes parents should postpone giving younger children mobile phones.
“I thought 12 was quite young, but nowadays you see children of five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten etc with mobile phones – and that’s just far too young for what’s out there.”
While Ruth acknowledges concerns around freedom of speech, she argues the type of material Sophie saw would never be shown on other forms of media.
STV News“We just wouldn’t be allowed to say the sort of things that you see on social media in the street without being arrested and yet this was a free for all online.
“I think one of the things when I was campaigning, people would talk about freedom of speech and the freedom to post whatever you like.
“But actually the sort of things that Sophie saw would be restricted in normal media and they would be restricted on television, radio.”
‘We need to keep up’
Eleven years on from Sophie’s death, Ruth welcomes the changes but says they are only a starting point.
“I think we could be sleep-walking into a position where people think that the act is done and dusted, that that’s what it is, and it just isn’t like that.
“We need a lot of politicians and charities, and individuals to stand up and say ‘this was a first step but we need to keep up with the technology.'”
A statement from Meta read: “Tens of millions of teens are now in Instagram Teen Accounts, which offer built-in protections that limit who can contact them, the content they see, and the time they spend on Instagram.
“We continue to use automated technology to remove content encouraging suicide and self-injury, with 99% proactively actioned before being reported to us. We developed Teen Accounts to help protect teens online and continue to work tirelessly to do just that.”
A Department for Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson said: “No parent should experience the unimaginable loss that Ruth has. The Online Safety Act cements in law that platforms must stop children from being fed harmful, dangerous, or pornographic content online.
“These laws are the foundation for a safer online world, not the end of the conversation, and we will not hesitate to go further if needed.”
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The Samaritans can be contacted any time, from any phone, free on 116 123, email at jo@samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch. Details of other services and more information can be found on the NHS website here.
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