Bereaved families urge Andy Burnham to launch public inquiry into deadly suicide forum

A coalition of bereaved families and a survivor of an online suicide-grooming forum have sent a letter to Andy Burnham, urging him to support a public inquiry into the platform that has been associated with at least 164 deaths in the United Kingdom over the past five years. The forum, whose name is being withheld, was fined £950,000 by Ofcom in May for breaching duties under the Online Safety Act, marking the regulator’s first enforcement action under the new law.

By July, Ofcom said it could not pursue further legal steps because the US-based site now blocks access from the UK, and additional restrictions would affect global users beyond UK jurisdiction. Campaigners, backed by the Molly Rose Foundation and the Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms group, also condemned the inability to extradite Canadian citizen Kenneth Law, whose lethal products are linked to 112 UK deaths, and likened the government’s inaction to past failures in Grenfell, infected blood, Horizon and Hillsborough scandals.

They argue successive governments delayed the Online Safety Act and that Ofcom has been either unwilling or unable to act swiftly enough. The letter calls for a comprehensive inquiry to expose systemic failures and honor the victims.