Mother Takes TikTok to Court Over Son’s Death

In January 2026, British mother Ellen Roome, aged 49, travelled from Gloucestershire to Delaware for a U.S. court hearing in a wrongful‑death case brought by the Social Media Victims Law Centre against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance. She joined other parents whose children – Jools Sweeney (14), Isaac Kenevan (13), Archie Battersbee (12), Noah Gibson (11) and Maia Walsh (13) – died in 2022 after allegedly attempting the "blackout" challenge on TikTok. Roome accused TikTok of deleting the data that could explain what the children were watching, while TikTok defended itself by saying the deleted videos were removed under U.K. privacy rules and that U.S. First Amendment shields it from liability. The hearing, described by Roome as "deeply painful", marked a pivotal moment as the parents seek access to the missing data and push for stricter child‑safety measures on social platforms.