Coroners and bereaved families will now have new legal authority to access information about their loved ones stored by tech companies, thanks to a deal reached by the government.
A House of Lords debate on the Online Safety Bill was when the pledge was made.
The bill's amendments, according to Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, minister of culture, will make data access "more straightforward and humane.".
It was "really important," according to Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing harmful content online.
Under Boris Johnson, the Online Safety Bill was introduced in March and has undergone numerous revisions as it has made its way through Parliament.
The bill was examined by a committee in the House of Lords on its final day as it neared passage.
During the committee hearing, cross-bencher Baroness Kidron called for the legal authority to ask Facebook and other "service providers" for any information that might be pertinent to the death of a child who had used their platform.
In response, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, minister of culture, unveiled a "package of amendments" to make certain that "coroners have access to the expertise and information that they need in order to conduct their investigations, including information held by technology companies, regardless of size.".
"This includes information about how a child interacted with particular online content as well as the contribution of broader systems and processes, like algorithms, in promoting it," Lord Parkinson continued. ".
Several parents of children who passed away as a result of online harms were present in the Lords' public gallery during the discussion, including Mr. Russell.
The plans, according to Mr. Russell of Harrow, NW London, are "the first major concession that the government has really given in this process.".
It's absolutely necessary, he said, if we're to learn from this and figure out how to make the great and fantastic digital world safer for everyone to use, especially kids.
We must allow digital platforms to bring benefits while safeguarding people from the risks they pose. ".
The progress has been "very positive," according to Lorin LeFave, whose son Breck Bednar, 14, was murdered by a stranger he met online after being groomed.
She said, "I'm hoping with all my heart that this bill will be all that it can be. The speeches were encouraging and the interactions were going in the right direction.
"I just want to be able to tame it and make sure our kids are safer online. I don't want to live in a world where the internet is still the wild west. ".
After the announcement, Baroness Kidron said: "It's not a moment of victory because it's so tragic that we've had to fight this hard and that so many families have run into the wall of 'computer says no' when they're in such grief and extremis.
"The minister stated that the government would convert a coroner's notice into the equivalent of an Ofcom information notice, meaning that the coroner would actually have access to all of Ofcom's authority. ".
She added that this would give authorities to cite businesses and punish managers.
