Father of Mia Janin, 14, calls for cyber bullying to be made a specific crime ... trends now

The father of a teenager who took her own life has called for 'real change' to make cyber bullying a specific crime and spare others from a tragic outcome.

Mia Janin, 14, a pupil at The Jewish Free School (JFS) in Kenton, Harrow, was found dead at her North London home in March 2021, having been subjected to 'hostile' bullying by male students in-person and over social media. 

Her parents are said to have not been aware she was a target of cyber bullying.

In the UK, cyber bullying is not a specific crime and courts instead rely on laws pertaining to harassment and malicious communications. 

Now in an interview with BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, her father, Mariano Janin, said the proposed Online Safety Bill 'would be the first step to get change, real change, for our young kids.'

He added: 'We need to revise the existing legislation about bullying, try to understand and try to act. Do something.'

Mr Janin continued: 'We need to transmit to our kids values, normal values, kindness, acceptance, understanding - then we need of course some kind of legal boundaries for social media.' 

He has previously called for other reforms, including bereaved parents being able to access the social media accounts of their children to understand what had occurred.  

Earlier this week, Tony Murphy, the coroner for North London, warned that more schoolgirls at JFS are at risk of suicide because gender-based bullying has continued at the school due to a lack of systemic changes.

The night before Mia was found dead, the tragic teenager had asked her parents to move school. 

She also sent a voice note to a friend, in which she said: 'Tomorrow's going to be a rough day, I'm taking deep breaths in and out. I'm currently mentally preparing myself to get bullied tomorrow.' 

But her parents did not realise just how much their daughter had been impacted by the bullying. 

On the day she died, Mr Janin said she was was 'planning the weekend and starting to plan the holidays and planning to start cheerleading and drama again.'

Just four months after Mia's death, her heartbroken mother Marisa died from untreatable leukaemia, which was found after a brain aneurysm, leaving behind her father Mariano.

While JFS claimed it has implemented a 'complete overhaul' following Mia's death in March 2021, Mr Murphy found that the initiatives have not done enough to make female pupils feel

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