Father of teenage murder victim blames social media influence

THE father of a teenage murder victim said he had total sympathy for the Henley family.

Stuart Stephens, whose 13-year-old son Olly was attacked by two teenagers in Emmer Green in January 2021, said the law needed to be changed in order to “catch up” with social media and violent images being distributed online.

He and his wife, Amanda, are supporters of the Online Safety Bill, which is designed to tighten regulations on social media platform owners and force them to remove harmful content.

The Bill has been approved by the House of Lords and Mr Stephens attended a debate on it in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The bill aims to:

• Remove illegal content quickly or prevent it from appearing in the first place.

• Prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.

• Enforce age limits and age-checking measures.

• Ensure the risks and dangers posed to children on the largest social media platforms are more transparent, including by publishing risk assessments.

• Provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online.

Olly’s killers plotted the attack on social media platforms and the majority of evidence police collated came from them.

Mr Stephens said he recognised the nature of the attacks on the Henley boy being filmed, which is known as “atterning”. He said: “It’s where they abuse you, beat you and film it, putting it out on social media so you can’t escape it. They tried to do that to Olly.

“There were six people involved but, sadly, they couldn’t charge three and the girl involved got away with manslaughter on a technicality. The law doesn’t stretch far enough — to me, they are all guilty of murder.

“Technology is advancing so rapidly that the law has not caught up but once it has, people who abuse will be held accountable.”

He said he felt for the Henley boy and his family.

“Those kids are destroying that family and you just can’t stop them, so you feel completely isolated,” said Mr Stephens. “It is plain evil what they are doing to that family. What a horrific situation. All the family can do is stay off their phones but then you become a prisoner in your own house.

“These kids are fed a diet of murder and mayhem on social media. The law needs to catch up. Pictures of a kid with a knife in their hand don’t count as evidence as it could be plastic. You can only get charged if the police stop you and you’re in possession of a knife. Obviously, these kids are a menace to society and somebody should be on their case.”

Mr Stephens said both the police and social services were overworked, which meant some children avoided the consequences of their actions.

He said: “Our experience is that everybody is so overloaded with paperwork they are not able to do enough. We had two social workers with Olly who had 1,600 kids between them.”

Mr Stephens decided to support the Online Safety Bill as a way of protecting other victims of bullying and harassment.

He said: “That’s where we have chosen to take our fight. The owners of these apps and social media platforms are responsible for what appears.

“You can destroy someone’s life just by hounding them with a text. It is just relentless. In 20 years, we will look back and wonder what the hell we were doing.

“The Bill is to protect the future generations of children as social media, the internet and AI are getting more dangerous. There is no escape and young minds are going to be damaged by it.”