THE dad of murdered teen Olly Stephens said his son would still be here without social media.
Stuart Stephens added there were no online protections for the 13-year-old before he was fatally stabbed.
Olly was stabbed to death in Reading, Berkshire, by two teen boys who recruited a girl to lure him to a field behind his house in January 2021.
Stuart told BBC Panorama: “They hunted him, tracked him and executed him through social media.
“Social media is not guilty of the murder, but it did nothing to protect him.
“Without it he’d still be here.”
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Thames Valley Police added that evidence of bullying and violent videos featuring knives found on the killers’ phones was just “the tip of a very large iceberg”.
Mum Amanda said she expected Olly back before dark but a boy he knew knocked on the door shortly after he left to tell them he had been stabbed.
Stuart and Olly’s older sister found him lying in a pool of blood in the field and Amanda followed.
Stuart said: “I just held his hand and asked him not to leave me.”
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He died in the field after friends, neighbours and dog walkers all tried to help.
Stuart added: “I still look for his feet in the morning at the end of the bed because they would hang over the end.”
Two 14-year-old boys, one of whom was 13 at the time of the killing, were convicted of Olly's murder.
Last year Stuart blasted the "vain selfish girl" who lured his son to a "cruel execution" when he came face-to-face with his son's killers in court.
He said: "The cruel actions of a vain selfish girl has led to Olly being trapped and slain.
"The day she walked into his life is a day we will forever regret.
"We as a family hold all three of you equally accountable for his death, there will no forgiveness from us, ever.
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"We are no longer the people we were and we will never be the same again."
Reading crown court also heard how Olly was a good student and not a troublemaker at all.
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