Heartbroken dad’s social media plea after 14-year-old daughter’s suicide

The father of a 14-year-old girl who took her own life has drawn attention to a key factor in her death. WARNING: Distressing content

WARNING: Distressing Content

The father of a schoolgirl who took her own life has urged tech companies to keep children safe online after an inquest found social media contributed to her death.

Molly Russell: Death that Shocked a Nation, available to stream on Flash, details the 14-year-old UK girl, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing content about depression, suicide and self harm on social media.

Since her death, the teenager’s family and their friends set up a charity, The Molly Rose Foundation in her memory to prevent suicide among people under 25.

Molly’s father, Ian, has raised awareness for mental health and campaigned to strengthen the government’s online safety bill.

“The fact that there’s huge amounts of easily accessible dangerous material online that would drive someone deeper into their depression towards suicide was a horrible shock,” he told the BBC program.

“If you find one hashtag, others hashtag will be suggested soon as you are in that club, as soon as you start to find this sort of material, the sad depression encouraging suicide encouraging memes will be landing in your inbox on your accounts daily.

“I can’t think how many of these such images Molly would have been exposed to. It’s just shocking.”

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14-year-old Molly Russell who took her own life in 2017. Picture: Flash/BBC

Molly’s father, Ian. Picture: Flash/BBC

Last week, a coroner ruled the teen’s death was “an act of self harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.

Coroner Andrew Walker of the Northern District of Greater London said the online material Molly viewed on platforms including Instagram and Pinterest “was not safe” and “should not have been available for a child to see”.

The ruling was the first of its kind to place direct blame for a child’s official death on social media rather than simply correlating the two.

Following the hearing, Mr Russell said: “It’s time to protect our innocent young people instead of allowing [social media] platforms to prioritise their profits by monetising the misery of children.”

The teenager died after viewing scores of social media images glorifying self-harm and suicide. Picture: BBC

‘The inquest has demonstrated very clearly the significant dangers social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest present in the absence of any effective regulation.’ Picture: Denis Charlet/AFP

A spokeswoman for Meta, the parent company for Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement following the conclusion that the company is “committed to ensuring that Instagram is a positive experience for everyone, particularly teenagers” and would “carefully consider the coroner’s full report”.

Pinterest has apologised for the content it promoted to Molly via email, including “10 depression pins you might like” and “depression recovery, depressed girl and more pins trending on Pinterest”, according to the BBC.

Speaking to the media about his daughter’s death, Mr Russell said: “In the last week we’ve heard much about one tragic story – Molly’s story. Sadly, there are too many others similarly affected right now.

“At this point I just want to say however dark it seems, there is always hope.

“If you’re struggling please speak to someone you trust or one of the many wonderful support organisations, rather than engage with online content that may be harmful.

“Please do what you can to live long and stay strong.”

– With Fox News

Originally published as Heartbroken dad’s social media plea after 14-year-old daughter’s suicide