Social media sites must take blame for harmful content, mum of murdered sisters whose killer was 'radicalised' tells LBC

11 March 2025, 01:08 | Updated: 11 March 2025, 08:22

The mother of two sisters murdered by a 19-year-old man who had been listed for Prevent has called on social media firms to be held accountable for the radical content allowed to circulate on the internet.

Mina Smallman's daughters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry were savagely stabbed to death in a Wembley Park by Danyal Hussein in June 2020.

Investigators said the 19-year-old killer had undergone “a form of radicalisation” after being exposed to occult material on the internet.

In an interview with LBC's Ben Kentish on Online Safety Day, Ms Smallman said the radicalisation of young men online has become "epidemic", claiming big tech and social media should be held responsible if they allow extremist and radicalising material to circulate on their sites..

Ms Smallman told LBC: "What we need to do is we need to penalise these companies (that don't) take down (the harmful content)."

She added that if these sites don't remove the material, they should either be banned from the country or "get huge fines. "

Read more: Mina Smallman speaks to James O'Brien | Watch again

Read more: Government is 'not putting children first' when it comes to online safety, crossbench peer tells LBC

Ben Kentish speaks to Shout Out UK's Head of Communications Amelia Fairney

The killer of her two daughters had been referred to the Prevent de-radicalisation programme in October 2017 after his school raised concerns - with teachers finding that material he had accessed on school computers had included far-right propaganda. He was later discharged from the process in 2018.

Following his arrest, Police had initially been denied access to Hussain's laptop by Apple following a request to see what he viewed or who he talked to.

Ms Smallman said: "How can that be? When you have someone that is dangerous or they've been charged, how can that be?"

"And I think what you're doing today is so important, thank you."

Ms Smallman was referring to LBCs round-the-clock coverage of Online Safety Day on Monday 10th March from 7am to midnight.

Iain Dale and Natasha Devon take your calls on Online Safety Day | Watch in full

She said: "I'm so pleased that you, LBC is devoted a whole day to this. I've been calling out, I've been saying it's an epidemic. our young men are being radicalised. I've said it numerous times and I just applaud LBC.

"Thank you so much for giving the voice to families who have been victims. And it's broken my heart, you know, I, I, you know, I've been in mourning. I don't just listen to it. It's been really difficult over the last few days, but thank you, I'm so grateful.

Although the Act was passed in 2023, it will only be later in this month and then in the summer that new powers arrive that will apply to search services and social media.

The children’s codes will begin in the summer - this means that new powers will arrive that will ensure platforms have systems in place to prevent children encountering harmful content. Like pornography or content that encourages self-harm or eating disorders.

Ofcom is set to be the enforcer of this. And will ask tech companies to bring in age checks, where necessary.