High Court orders new inquest into death of 14-year-old boy after TikTok 'blackout challenge'

The High Court in England and Wales has made a landmark ruling by overturning the previous inquest into the death of 14-year-old Jools Sweeney and ordering a new investigation. The schoolboy from Gloucestershire died in April 2022. His parents, Ellen Roome and Matt Sweeney, believed social media played a role, pointing to the popularity of the TikTok "blackout challenge" at the time.The original inquest in 2022 lasted only 23 minutes and heard no oral evidence. It did not examine social media evidence, which was unavailable then. Roome later commissioned a private forensic analysis of Jools' phone, uncovering new data. Her barrister, Harry Lambert, said TikTok data was "highly probative of overuse or addiction."Lord Justice Warby and Mrs Justice Heather Williams said there were "various potential lines of inquiry" not considered in the original inquest. This ruling is believed to be the first in England and Wales where the main ground for overturning a previous inquest was the lack of social media evidence.Roome successfully campaigned for "Jools' Law," which requires tech companies to automatically preserve a child's online and social media data within five days of their death. It was written into the Crime and Policing Act on 29 April 2026.TikTok's representative, Antony Jones, said the company did not oppose a new inquest and "could certainly see the force" for it. Roome, along with four other bereaved British parents, is separately suing TikTok and its parent company ByteDance in Delaware, United States.