Lauren Cowell urges law change after social media scare over son Eric
Lauren Cowell says a moment on the school run with her 12-year-old son Eric pushed her into public campaigning over social media and children’s safety. The concern began when she realised Eric had downloaded Snapchat on her phone while she was driving, and she says the discovery left her deeply unsettled.
Now, Lauren Cowell has joined the Raise the Age campaign, which wants the minimum age for children to access social media raised to 16. She is speaking out as a key House of Commons vote approaches on Wednesday, and she says the issue should be treated as a child protection question, not a political one.
The school-run moment that changed everything
Lauren Cowell said Eric often took her phone in the car to put music on, and she could not see what he was doing while driving. She later found that he had downloaded Snapchat, an app she says she knew nothing about and did not understand at first.
“The more I started to understand about it, the more it really freaked me out, ” Lauren Cowell said. She said the experience sharpened concerns that had already been building for years between her and Simon Cowell, who has been phone-free for eight years and has described that choice as life-changing after a period close to burn-out.
Lauren Cowell and the campaign for change
Lauren Cowell’s campaign has been shaped by her contact with bereaved families, including Ellen Roome, who believes her 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney died in an online challenge gone wrong in 2022. Lauren Cowell said she reached out after hearing Roome’s story, and that their conversations quickly became central to her view of the issue.
“It stopped being a what if or a hypothetical, ” Lauren Cowell said. “You’re hearing from parents whose lives have been completely torn apart, not just one family, but dozens. ” She added that meeting families who have lost children made the danger feel immediate and personal.
What Lauren Cowell says children need now
Lauren Cowell says Eric now has a phone, but it has no social media on it and is limited to texting and WhatsApp. She said the family held off giving him a phone for a long time because social media had been a “nagging fear” for both her and Simon Cowell.
Her message to lawmakers is direct: “This really shouldn’t even be a political discussion…it should absolutely be a discussion of what is in the best interest and the safety and protection of children, full stop, ” Lauren Cowell said. She also said she wants Keir Starmer to “do the right thing” as a father.
Wednesday’s vote could bring fresh attention to the campaign and to the question of whether the law should set a higher minimum age for social media access. For Lauren Cowell, the issue has already moved far beyond one app, one phone, or one family, and she says the fight for change is about protecting children before another parent has to face the same fear.
