A nurse is campaigning for tech bosses to be made criminally liable for protecting children from harm online - after her daughter took her own life. Ruth Moss, 51, is campaigning for tougher social media regulations and new legislation which would hold tech bosses to account.
Her daughter Sophie Parkinson, 13, died at home in Angus, Fife, in 2014, after she had viewed suicidal and self-harm posts on social media. Ruth said she did everything she could to protect Sophie online but warned parents can never been 100 per cent sure what their children are viewing.
She told how she had been shamed by other parents for giving Sophie a phone when she was 12 but warned children can get around even the best parental controls. Ruth, from Edinburgh, said: “We gave Sophie a phone when she was 12 to give her a bit of independence.
“We did all the parental controls on the phone, we locked down our Wi-Fi at home, we did everything we could to be responsible. But she was still able to access harmful material when she had access to free Wi-Fi, on the bus to school or at cafes.
“When I went on her phone after she died I was met with the most harmful stuff, it was shocking. She had gotten around the age verification to set up a social media profile, which I think a lot of children do.
“There was really horrible imagery on her social media account, I was just bombarded with images of self-harm and suicide. We checked her phone and internet history like a lot of parents do, but parents can’t control everything, if kids want to get around things, they will find a way.
“I faced a lot of parent shaming after Sophie died, people asking why I would give a phone to my 12-year-old child. But we did all the things any responsible parent could do, and I was much stricter than I think a lot of parents are.
“Parent shaming is so unhelpful, we are all just trying to do our best. You can be the most responsible parent in the world but you are still never 100 per cent sure what your child can get access to which is the really scary part.”
The UK Government’s Online Safety Bill would require tech companies to remove illegal material from their platforms. But it would only hold tech bosses liable for failing to give information to the Ofcom watchdog.
Campaigners like Ruth want the owners of social media platforms to face jail time if they fail to protect children from seeing damaging content. Ruth said viewing harmful material was detrimental to Sophie’s state of mind.
She said: “After Sophie died it was like me against the tech. Social media companies are very good at getting around legislation.
“They will make voluntary agreements with the government pledging to do one thing or another but it just doesn’t happen. We have stringent health and safety in all other areas of work but not within these billion pound tech companies, there is no accountability.
“Senior managers at these companies should be held criminally liable if they wilfully ignore the law. It should be clear that if they look at legislation and decided to do nothing with it then they are at risk of going to prison.
"That is the same for managers in lots of other industries. That would help change the culture at these companies.
“It would change the perception of what could happen if they ignore legislations, rather than them just thinking they might have to take a fine. Teenagers push boundaries but they are still children at the end of the day and their minds are still developing.
“Once you search something once you are bombarded with similar stuff, whether that’s looking up shoes and seeing hundreds of other adds pop up or self harm.
“These algorithms are so powerful.”
