Molly Russell’s father backs ‘stocktake’ of digital world

A “STOCKTAKE” of the digital world is long overdue, the father of Molly Russell has urged, as he pledged his support for a new consultation into online harms.

The campaigner claims that graphic self-harm images on Instagram played a role in his daughter’s suicide and wants the internet to be a “safer place” for young and vulnerable people.

Ian Russell said: “Today’s current big tech platforms were born at about the same time as my youngest daughter, Molly. The powerful tech corporations live on, sadly Molly ended her own life in 2017 and I am convinced what she found online helped kill her.”

Writing for The Telegraph website, the founder of the Molly Rose Foundation argues that a “stocktake of our digital world is long overdue” and backs Labour’s new Our Digital Future Consultation.

The review, which launches tomorrow, will examine children’s safety, hate speech and the spread of disinformation online.

Jo Stevens, the shadow culture secretary, said: “Labour believes that technology has already changed lives for the better, but it also provides a space where disinformation, hate speech and other online harms have been allowed to flourish.

“This is something that should worry all of us.”

Labour is also calling on the Government to prioritise the Online Harms Bill, which was unveiled in April last year in response to the death of Mr Russell’s 14-year-old daughter.

The proposals included a “duty of care” on tech firms and a regulator with the power to issue heavy fines to platforms which do not sufficiently censor potentially harmful content.