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Bereaved parents of children who took their own lives want authorities to take online histories into account when determining their cause of death.
The mother of Archie Battersbee, who died in August 2022 after a “prank or experiment” that went wrong, joined other families to demand more access to content their children were exposed to online.
“I think it should be available and be part of the whole investigation,” Hollie Dance told Sky News.
“When it comes to a child’s death, everything should be looked into.
“Obviously they look into the parents, the home life, school life. Why not look into social media?”
Ms Dance’s 12-year-old son Archie died after being found unconscious at home four months earlier.
She believes he may have been taking part in an online challenge, but a coroner ruled his death an accident.
“We’ve got his phone now, so let’s go back and see what this child was into,” she said.
“What did he watch? Did he look at a lot of social media? Didn’t he?”
Molly Russell ruling ‘opened our eyes’
Ian Russell campaigned to get access to his daughter Molly‘s social media history after she was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017.
It emerged Molly, 14, had viewed masses of content related to suicide, depression, and anxiety online.
In a landmark ruling at an inquest in September, a coroner ruled she died not from suicide, but “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.”
Ms Dance, who was joined by Mr Russell at a meeting of bereaved families this week, said: “Having Molly’s dad here has given us knowledge that we didn’t know.
“It opened our eyes to things that…
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