BBC Panorama will air an investigation into the ‘violent and disturbing’ digital world that preceded Olly Stephens’ murder.

In A Social Media Murder: Olly’s Story, his parents expose the ‘bile and abuse’ young people are exposed to on social media, which they believe played a key role in their son’s death.

The 13-year-old was attacked by two teenage boys in Bugs Bottom fields in Emmer Green on January 3, 2021, having been lured there by a girl, also 13.

The younger boy stabbed Olly following an altercation and he sadly died from his stab wounds.

During the boys' trial last summer, Reading Crown Court heard how the pair had sent hateful messages to and about Olly on social media. 

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Olly’s father, Stuart Stephens, said: “Know your children’s phone habits, if we had understood the bile and abuse Olly was exposed too, we would not be mourning his loss now.”

He and Olly’s mother, Amanda, have worked with BBC reporter Marianna Spring and Panorama over the past six months to produce the show.

“We have discussed the harm social media does to our children, the dangers they are exposed too and the very real consequences, we now have to live with.

“Our aim is to highlight the need to remove abusive content that social media allows our children to view unregulated and to hold social media companies to account for the world they have created for our under 18s.

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“The Online Safety Bill is the chance to save a future generation of children from themselves and their parents from suffering in the way in which we now are.”

The pair have previously called on the Government to make tech companies more accountable for what happens on their social media sites.

They demanded accounts be made traceable to those who are using them.

Marianna Spring praised the couple’s courage after they contacted her on Instagram asking her to investigate Olly’s case last year.

BBC Panorama, A Social Media Murder: Olly’s Story will air at 8pm on June 20.