4th Sept 2025 - I’ve written a full ‘brain dump’ of Jools’ last day. Every moment, every tiny detail I can remember, laid out in a timeline. It was incredibly painful to relive, but the experts asked me to do this so they could piece together what happened, and so much was overlooked in the original investigation.
Even something as simple as Jools wearing different clothes when I found him compared to earlier in the day… why wasn’t this noticed?
Is it relevant? I don’t know. But now, I must let the experts do their job. I am beyond grateful for their kindness in helping me.
Jools Law
Jools’ Law – My Story and Campaign
I’m Ellen Roome, Jools' Mum and now a campaigner.
My life changed forever on 13 April 2022 when my 14-year-old son, Jools Sweeney, took his own life.
Nothing was found offline to explain why. The coroner said he could not be certain Jools was in a suicidal mood, and his death certificate carries only a narrative description of how he died. His sudden loss left me searching desperately for answers.
Yet Jools’ social media was never fully examined during his inquest. When I approached the platforms directly, every social media company refused to give me access to his browsing data.
Jools’ accounts could have provided vital insights into what he had seen, whether an online challenge or harmful interactions had influenced him. But under current UK law, even as his mother, I have no legal right to access my own child’s digital data.
That devastating reality is what led me to launch Jools’ Law.​
What is Jools’ Law?
Jools’ Law is my campaign to give bereaved parents the legal right to access and preserve their child’s social media data.
Since I began this journey, the legal landscape has shifted with the introduction of the Data Use and Access Bill, but the reality for families has not changed enough.
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The problem: During an inquest into a child’s death, coroners can now request social media data through Ofcom. However, they are often unaware of the process, delay the request, or fail to make it altogether. Parents are left begging police and coroners for help at the worst moment of their lives, when many are simply not able, or do not even know they need, to fight for this evidence. As a result, vital data is lost.
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The change we need: Jools’ Law would make it compulsory for children’s social media data to be preserved and requested immediately — in what police and coroners call the “golden hour” after a child’s death, just as a post-mortem or toxicology report is carried out as standard.
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The campaign: Since April 2024, I have met with ministers, spoken widely in the media, gathered petitions, and joined forces with other parents through the Bereaved Families for Online Safety Group to demand the law is changed.
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Because no parent should ever be left in the dark like I was.
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My Background​
Before dedicating my life to this campaign, I spent nearly two decades running my own financial services company. In 2024, I sold it so I could focus entirely on protecting children and giving families answers.
Running a business taught me resilience, but losing Jools taught me the true meaning of priorities. Today, every part of this journey is for him and for the families who should never have to endure what we have suffered and continue to suffer with.
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My Next Steps
My next step in seeking access to Jools’ data is through the High Court (click link for more info).
You can read below about my journey through Parliament, pushing for changes to the law on access to children’s social media data. Sadly, the new Data Bill will not help me, because Jools’ inquest has already been closed.
That leaves me with only one path forward: applying to the Attorney General for permission to request a fresh inquest. Only then can the Data Bill be used to access Jools’ social media data, if it has not already been deleted, and finally uncover whether it holds answers to why my son ended his life.
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Beyond the Law: Online Safety Initiatives
Alongside fighting for Jools’ Law, I’ve joined initiatives to help keep children safe online:
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Click or Quit? — a free resource launched in 2025 with 1Decision and two other bereaved mothers, teaching children about the dangers of online challenges and empowering them to speak up.
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Pinky Promise — in memory of Jools and our special pact to always be truthful, I raise funds for PAPYRUS, the UK suicide prevention charity for young people.
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My Parliament Campaign
As a result of not being able to access my son's social media accounts - despite him being a minor when he died, and therefore under my parental responsibility - I felt compelled to launch a campaign for "Jools' Law," which seeks to grant parents the right to access their deceased children's social media accounts without needing a court order.
27th April 2024 - I set up a government petition
#Joolslaw - Parents to have full access to their children's social media. I want parents/guardians to have the full right to see their children's social media accounts when either the child is alive or deceased. My son Jools was 14 when he took his life in 2022. At the time, the new Coroner's powers to request social media were not in force. However, I also think this is too late. Since my son's death, I have not been able to access information to see what my son was looking at that could have contributed to him taking his own life. Parents should have the right to full access to their child's social media accounts either whilst they are still alive (to protect them) or if they die as in my case.
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I was contacted by Grace Carter from Aphra (https://www.weareaphra.co.uk/) , whom I didn't know until she reached out and offered to help create a video to ask for signatures. The video is below.
24th May 2024 - Jools' story
21st May 2024 - Due to the Government election, the Government was set to close ALL petitions early on 30th May. I had 9 days to get to 100,000 signatures. It was my birthday, so I asked on social media for one birthday wish: “Everyone, please sign and share my petition"
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Grace told me we needed another video to push for signatures, I didn't want to fail, so she made this..​​
28th May 2024—We reached 100,000 signatures. I was on a train to London and felt like crying out of joy.
Wow—thank you, everyone.
30th May 2024 - The petition closed with an impressive total of 126,033 signatures.
17th July 2024 – During the King's Speech, part of the State Opening of Parliament, it was announced that the Data (Use and Access) Bill would be reintroduced. This bill had previously been dropped mainly due to political disagreements, concerns over its scope, or the prioritisation of other legislative measures.
13th Jan 2025 - My petition was discussed in Parliament, where MPs concurred that parents should have the right to seek answers using social media data when a child has died. I was then offered a meeting with the ministers and awaited their response. You can watch the debate here…
I attended numerous parliamentary meetings, some of which included representatives from social media companies. I pleaded with these companies to release Jools’ data as well as data for other bereaved parents who were there with me. They refused.
I urged ministers to consider amending the Data Bill; I proposed a simple yet effective amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill in Parliament. Under the Data Bill, the coroner will now be able to demand that social media companies preserve and release data, but only if the police or the coroner requests it.
Like many other parents I know, they never took the initiative to preserve and request our children's data. I wanted it to become compulsory, like a toxicology or post-mortem report is requested when a child dies. I wanted social media data automatically preserved and requested for the inquest. The parent could then access this data as a person of interest in the child’s death. Most importantly, it could assist the inquest in determining what happened to the child, whether it was bullying, grooming, sextortion, or an online challenge. It's crucial that this data is preserved and requested immediately. The Data Bill is in the final stages of passing through Parliament, and while it will not be compulsory to preserve and request data, there will be a law that, if enacted, will grant the coroner the right to request this data.
15th May 2025 – I met with Minister Jones (Department of Science and Technology), Minister Johnson (Home Office), and Minister Davies-Jones (Minister of Justice) to discuss further. I stressed the need for training for Police and Coroners to make sure the potential use of the Data Bill is cascaded down through the system to ensure that no other bereaved parent is left in my position of not having all data reviewed, which could help explain why a child has ended their life.
