‘PROTECTING our children’s childhood is so important’.
That was the message from Amanda Stephens, parent of teenager Olly, who was murdered by youngsters in January of 2021, as they seek to protect other children from the darker sides of social medi and online activities.
On Saturday, with husband Stuart, she was unveiling a mural at Emmer Green Primary School, which Olly attended. Painted by street artist Peachy Official, the artwork includes a portrait of Olly’s first day at the school, along with a rainbow, a rose and a butterfly.
Next to the stencil of Olly and a blue balloon, there is a piece inspired by a painting Olly himself made, stating ‘Music Moves You’ and ‘You Can Do It With Music!’
Mrs Stephens explained: “It’s a piece of artwork he did in the final year of primary school.
“We found it in his drawers hidden with paints after he passed.
“We also found an Eminem CD. He always loved music and lots of different genres.
“Stuart and I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, and he would listen to all the music we would have listened to.
“It was only after he passed we realised he had quite a big playlist.”
Giving a speech to friends and family members, Mrs Stephens thanked the school’s headmistress, Tonia Crossman, for giving permission to paint the mural, Year 2 teacher Ellie Hayden for approaching Peachy, and the artist himself.
“His care, skill and drive has created a mural so vibrant, so full of Olly that it takes my breath away and fills my heart with joy to see Olly back in the playground again, on Olly’s Wall,” she said.
The school was a “very special place” she added, and helped care and nurture for children.
Olly, she said, would stick up for his friends and the underdog: “He couldn’t tolerate prejudice or bullying, sadly this got him into trouble, repeatedly.”
The family have been working to turn their grief into something profoundly positive, something Mrs Stephens said was “Olly’s work”.
“When we realised the world that Olly had been living in on and offline was so dangerous we had to do something to help protect other children and to raise awareness to parents, teachers and other practitioners who support them,” Mrs Stephens said.
This work has included working with Thames Valley Police and the justice system, creating Olly’s Place in Bugs Bottom, where he was murdered, and participating in a BBC Panorama documentary.
They have also campaigned in Parliament on online safety bill, campaigned for anti-knife crime education, working with the Ben Kinsella Trust and Reading Borough Council, among others.
The couple have also worked with local groups, such as Parenting Special Children Reading, Grassrootz and Giveback FC, and organised an under 14s rugby tournament, and the Southlake Angling Fishing event in Woodley.
“we have found is that it’s very hard to make anything national and enforceable, but we will continue to campaign and work locally. This work includes pushing for information sharing by agencies that would save lives,” Mrs Stephens said.
Now, they are redoubling their efforts, writing to primary schools in a bid to encourage them to help children have a smartphone-free childhood.
In the letter the parents said they first gave Olly a smartphone when he was in Year 5 so he could walk to school without his parents.
“What we hadn’t foreseen was how addictive the phone would be, he wanted it all the time. His mobile phone became another tricky issue to manage along with time on his Xbox, it was a battle to get him off both devices,” they wrote.
A WhatsApp comment he made to most of the children in his year was “a difficult situation for the school to manage”, and they say the situation is made worse by the introduction of smartwatches.
Olly’s murder, they wrote, was planned online by children aged 13 and 14, making brutal threats to him, and the images of knives “were not picked up by any of the 11 social media platforms they were communicating on”.
The Stephens said that since they have started Olly’s Work, they have been upset at what they have learnt: “There is currently no protection for our children online, they can be groomed, criminally exploited, made to feel body dysmorphia, encouraged to self-harm and to take their lives. The algorithms on social media are intelligent and will force-feed damaging content. Often the harmful content comes into our children’s feeds without them searching for it.”
They asked schools to watch a film produced by the Financial Times that underscores their message: “We know that we have let our children down, we took away their innocence and their childhood, we did not protect them, we will regret this for the rest of our lives, we will continue to campaign around this area until we are sure that the danger has been removed.”
They ended their letter with a call to action: “Please join a growing number of concerned parents, teachers, and politicians, who are pushing for no smartphones in our schools and homes and no social media for under 16s. Please talk to other parents and unite, do not give your child a smartphone, please keep them safe and protected.”
Additional reporting: Local democracy reporting service
