“People always think: ‘Oh, that’s not going to happen to me, it’s not going to happen to my child,'” says Ellen Roone.
She’s sitting in her peaceful garden in Cheltenham, bumblebees trundling around in the bushes behind her.
“I didn’t expect it to be my child.”
Ellen Roome
Jools, Ellen’s son, was 14 years old when he took his life in 2022. It’s thought he had been watching harmful content online when he died.
Ellen was the one who found him.
Jools was funny, into martial arts – in fact, he was a black belt in kung fu at just 10 years old – and he was popular.
This weekend, his school friends are all heading to Ellen’s house to help her mark what should be his 18th.
They come every year to celebrate his birthday, and there are signs of how loved he is all over the house – pictures, a small wooden dinghy painted red in the garden, his name written down the side in curly script.
When Jools passed away, Ellen became part of a small but growing group of parents in the UK whose children have died after seeing harmful content on the internet.
Today, Ofcom, the communications regulator, begins enforcing new rules to protect the UK’s children online.
Read more: New internet rules come into force – here’s what will change
Jools Sweeney’s mum described him as funny and popular. Pic: Ellen Roome
The new rules mean “highly effective” age verification systems must be in place on pornographic content, and social media algorithms must be altered to stop harmful content popping up on young people’s feeds.
But Ellen, and many of the bereaved parents she campaigns with, aren’t satisfied – for them, the rules don’t go far enough.
“At the moment, you’ve got massive gaps still where it’s not safe,” she says.
“Online platforms are having to do age verification. Is that going to work? Children are quite clever. They find loopholes of how to get around these things.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What is AI facial age estimation?
She’s not alone in her scepticism.
More than a hundred miles away in a Warrington youth club, a group of 15 teenagers have given up one of their first afternoons of summer holidays to talk about what they’ve seen online.
When asked if they’ve seen harmful or inappropriate content online, one of them, a 17-year-old called Amy, replies: “More than I can count.”
When she describes the things she has been sent or scrolled through on social media, it’s clear she’s not exaggerating.
17-year-old Ryan called the internet a “very, very malicious place”
Ryan, another 17-year-old, nonchalantly describes the internet as a “very, very malicious place”.
“If you’re going into an online space and you’re expecting simplicity and everything to be nice and tame, you’re going in quite naive,” he says.
Lucas and his twin brother are just 12 years old and even they’ve seen language that “can be quite explicit for children around my age”, he says.
But the young people here at Warrington Youth Zone aren’t all convinced these new rules are going to make a difference.
Many of them assume their peers will just find ways around the content controls.
Young people gathered at the Warrington Youth Zone to talk to Sky News about online safety
“If people are that determined to have an over-18s account, nothing is really going to stop them,” says 15-year-old Freya.
Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, is more optimistic.
“This is a moment where the safety of children online is going to take the biggest step forward since the creation of the internet,” he told Sky News.
“Finally, we [have] platforms who are having to verify people’s age before they access material and there will be very steep sanctions if material finds its way into children’s hands and it is inappropriate,” he says.
He’s proud of these new regulations; they are the first of their kind in this country.
Not only are there much stricter rules in place, Ofcom, the communications regulator, also has significant powers if companies don’t comply.
Read more from science and technology:
Donald Trump declares US is going to ‘win’ AI race
‘Thousands of cancer cases could be prevented’
It can impose fines of up to £18m or 10% of revenue and, in very serious cases, stop sites operating in the UK, all in the name of cleaning up the internet “cesspit” he says the UK’s children have become used to.
“It is indistinguishable for them as to what’s going to come up next [in their feeds].
“They don’t know whether it’s going to be something healthy that they want to see or whether it is something criminally violent or exploitative or damaging.”
There’s plenty of cynicism about these new rules.
Some people are suspicious about privacy. “Highly effective” age verification can include bank or ID checks or even AI tools that estimate people’s ages.
The chief executive of Yoti, one of the companies now offering these age-checking tools, says he would be “out of business” if he didn’t look after users’ data.
Robin Tombs added: “Over time, people will get comfortable [and] trust that if it is well-regulated, you can do this with privacy.”
Marcus Johnstone from PCD Solicitors
Others worry that more teenagers will end up being criminalised.
Marcus Johnstone, a lawyer who specialises in sexual crimes, says: “You’re not going to be able to stop teenagers watching pornography.”
“The schools, the colleges they’re at, everybody’s watching pornography so they will want access to that.
“It will result in criminalisation of more young people because they will want to find that material and if it’s not available on the easy access sites where they might find it now, then they will go on to the illegal sites.”
Ofcom’s response to that concern was that these rules are about creating societal change as much as technological blocks on content.
“It’s about what we as a society say is normal for our online experiences,” says Jessica Smith, online safety principal at the regulator.
Others, like Ellen, want the rules to go much further.
She supports an all-out ban of under-18s on social media, saying an Australia-style ban of under-16s doesn’t go far enough.
“At 16, you’re still quite naive and young. I remember thinking I was very mature at 16. Looking back, I really wasn’t,” she says.
Peter Kyle, while celebrating the new rules, is realistic.
“I am not telling every parent out there that [from today], every single corner of the internet is going to be safe for their kids to be on, or that some content won’t slip through.
“But what I am saying is that I am expecting a step change in children’s experience.
“They will notice the difference. For the first time since the creation of the internet, parents and children will notice a difference in their online experience.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
