Mothers join forces to warn of danger of social media trends

Parents who believe their children died as a result of dangerous social media trends have warned more will be hurt if online safety is not taken seriously.

Hollie Dance's son, Archie Battersbee, died aged 12 after a "prank or experiment" went wrong at their home in Southend-on-Sea in April 2022.

Lisa Kenevan's son Isaac, 13, died after it was believed he took part in a choke challenge on social media.

The mothers have since joined forces to warn others of potential tragedy.

They have been campaigning for schools to raise more awareness about the dangers of online trends and dares that their children could be viewing.

Their work has since been backed by Internet Matters, Southend West MP Anna Firth and Ms Kenevan's local MP Stephen Metcalfe, who represents South Basildon and East Thurrock.

"I think it is paramount we are involved in what our children are viewing but at the same time you have to respect their privacy," Ms Kenevan told BBC Essex.

"Once you look on one of those sites you get the algorithm and you get ploughed into it more and more.

"These videos seem to be all very, very innocent and all very childlike and that's the danger, they're just pursuing our children."

Ms Kenevan said she was not aware Isaac was looking at anything "sinister" but said his "highly inquisitive" nature made him vulnerable.

Parents overloaded with paperwork from school should be asked to view a quick video warning of any dangers rather than a letter, Ms Dance suggested.

She called on schools to ensure the message was getting through and said the transition between primary and secondary school was a key point where parents were most receptive to safety information.

"Like Lisa, we don't want anyone to go through what we've gone through," Ms Dance said.

Ms Kenevan added: "It's going to be a long road, that's the sad thing. It's highly likely that some parent is going to be experiencing what we've experienced, sadly."

Mr Metcalfe said social media giants should do more to "de-risk" their platforms and remove "seriously risky" material.

In October, the government passed the Online Safety Act to control online speech and media deemed "harmful".

It said the act took a "zero-tolerance approach" to protecting children and ensured social media platforms were held responsible for the content they hosted.

Bosses of the platforms could face significant fines and possibly prison if they failed to take action to prevent and remove harmful material, the government said.

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