Families demand Andy Burnham launch inquiry into online suicide-grooming forum

Bereaved families have called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to launch a statutory public inquiry into an online forum accused of grooming vulnerable people into suicide.

The group alleges that at least 164 people have died over the past five years due to institutional failures by the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

In a letter to the prime minister, the families claim the forum aims to groom, coerce and instruct vulnerable individuals to take their own lives. They have compared the need for an inquiry to the investigations into the Hillsborough disaster and the Grenfell fire.

The families argue that successive governments acted too slowly to heed warnings. They also accused Ofcom of being either unwilling or unable to act with the required urgency.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said the regulator acted quickly once the Online Safety Act came into force. The spokesperson stated that all possible legal routes under the Act have now been exhausted and that the forum has already blocked access to people in the UK.

A government spokesperson said it is illegal to encourage and assist suicide or serious self-harm online. The spokesperson added that sites promoting such content will face the full force of the law.

Andy Burrows, the chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, warned that people will continue to die unless the prime minister commits to a public inquiry. He stated that the death toll is likely in the hundreds.

Mary Pritchard, whose daughter Grace died in August 2025, said that meetings with ministers and Ofcom had not led to progress. She called on the government to prioritise the people of the country over the interests of big tech organisations.