Parents call for better security of school internet after their teenage daughter copied suicide website

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Mourning parents of a teenager who took her own life after accessing suicidal content from the classroom iPad are fighting for greater internet security in schools.

Judy and Andy Thomas of Aldershot lost their only child, Frankie, in 2018. The 15-year-old died of suicide using a method copied from a story she had read online just hours earlier – and later discovered that Frankie had access to similar material. at least nine months before school.

Now the coroner has backed their campaign and issued a report calling for national action due to outdated guidelines and weak regulatory oversight by the education ministry.

Judy, 63, a retired music teacher, said: “Our beloved daughter is gone and nothing can bring her back. However, we do not want any other family to survive the same tragedy. ‘

Frankie was diagnosed with high-functioning autism soon after starting elementary school, at the age of five. She was intelligent and funny, but she struggled with social situations.

Judy said: ‘Frankie was quite a character. Completely fearless. She loved the theme park rides and zipwires. She had a lot of energy and enjoyed climbing, judo, boxing, horseback riding and windsurfing.

“Being her parent was a complete privilege and we were extremely proud of her. She had such potential and we believed in her one hundred percent. ‘

Judy and Andy Thomas, pictured with Frankie, 6, are pushing for schools to adopt stricter Internet safety rules after their daughter’s death.

Frankie attended elementary school, but when she was ready for high school, her parents found she was struggling with a large website and a noisy environment.

She was initially sent to a small independent school, which was later closed. At the age of 12, she moved to a school for special educational needs.

Judy said: “Frankie was involved in a number of typical teenage things. Her favorite band was Green Day. She played bass guitar, was in a band and dreamed of going to music school one day.

“But because of her disability, she was extremely vulnerable to suggestions and could be hasty and impulsive.

Since she wasn’t a typical teenager, we had to be very careful about some things, including the internet. At home, our family computer was password protected and she could only use it if Andy or I sat next to her.

“I informed her school that our daughter needs to be closely monitored on the internet and I assured her she will.”

‘Pretty character’: Frankie’s parents loved to remember their only daughter, pictured at 12

‘Pretty character’: Frankie’s parents loved to remember their only daughter, pictured at 12

Frankie, 7, was diagnosed with autism and was

Frankie, 7, was diagnosed with autism and was “extremely sensitive to suggestions.”

On September 25, 2018, Frankie took a break from class, which happened occasionally when she needed some time to rest. She was sitting in the hallway with a school iPad, being told to research the subject of the lesson.

Instead, she spent more than two hours unsupervised accessing hardcore pornography and stories on the Wattpad social storytelling platform, four of which described suicide and self-harm.

Judy recalled, “That day Frankie came home in a seemingly happy mood. Before she climbed into her bedroom, she was playing on the garden swing – something that calmed her anxieties.

‘When I called her to dinner an hour later, she didn’t respond.’

The worried mother went upstairs to find her daughter.

She said: ‘It was devastating. That day is the end of our world. ‘

Judy called 999 and helped a neighbor perform resuscitation until paramedics arrived. But Frankie was pronounced dead after several attempts at resuscitation at the hospital.

Judy continued, “Frankie never told us about suicide. We know that she did not have access to material at home to encourage such thoughts.

“But the day after her death, the school sent us a list of the last websites she accessed on her school laptop. We found that she watched X-rated content and read stories describing self-harm and suicide. The final story reflected her death later at home, just hours later. ‘

Frankie’s cremation in October 2018 was attended by more than 200 people. The service began with her favorite Star Wars music and her beloved Labrador dog Lucy, who entered the chapel before the coffin.

Then Judy and Andy, an IT expert, determined that an investigation into her death would need to be made.

They turned to amateur detectives to gather evidence.

Judy said: “The school had a policy in place that promised to keep students safe online. There was also equipment to monitor internet usage and warn children if they were accessing inappropriate websites. But crucially, we found the system was not connected properly.

“That meant it didn’t trigger alerts when students accessed unsafe sites.”

Judy and Andy also had school notebooks forensically examined.

Andy Thomas, pictured with Frankie as a child

Happier times: Frankie, four years old

Frankie was introduced as a baby with her father Andy and in happier times as a four-year-old

This revealed that Frankie had access to graphic websites discussing self-harm and ways to commit suicide while she was in school for at least nine months before her death.

They also discovered that school iPads were still not connected to the warning system a year after the couple lost their daughter.

Frankie’s investigation finally began in October, when Surrey Observer Assistant Karen Henderson told the couple that they had done everything in their power to protect their daughter during her lifetime.

But Ms Henderson said the school’s failures and Wattpad’s “lack of robustness” in removing inappropriate content “contributed more than minimally” to Frankie’s death.

Schools do not block Wattpad, and in some schools, Key Level 4 students are actively encouraged to use it.

The coroner wondered if 600 platform moderators were enough to control a billion pieces of content.

The coroner also said the education ministry “lacked proper instructions” when it came to introducing e-security in all schools that were somewhat similar to the “Wild West.”

They recorded a suicide verdict.

Judy said: “We are afraid that countless other schools across the country have similarly poor internet security.”

Frankie, at age 7 with her beloved bitch Lucy, was diagnosed with high-functioning autism

Frankie, at age 7 with her beloved bitch Lucy, was diagnosed with high-functioning autism

This month, the coroner wrote to the education department asking for action to address “inappropriate regulatory oversight” and “outdated guidelines” regarding Internet security systems in all schools, with standard advice on which sites should be blocked.

A report on the prevention of future deaths relating to Frankie’s death has been sent to the Minister of Education, who has 56 days to respond with proposed measures to address the concerns.

Judy said: “The Internet can be an extremely dangerous place, especially for those with special educational needs, such as our daughter.

“We believe that every child in the classroom should be safe on the Internet. We want schools to legally review online safety policies regularly to check that monitoring and warning equipment is working properly – in the same way as fire alarms.

“Our Frankie wasn’t safe at school. And in the end, she lost her life because of it. What happened to her was a catastrophic failure. ‘

The couple hopes their daughter’s death will be a wake-up call for schools and the education department.

Judy said, ‘Frankie was bigger than life and so much of our lives. We miss her so much and still can’t believe she’s gone.

For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116123 or visit your local Samaritans branch. See www.samaritans.org for details

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