William talks to grieving dad about photo site

THE DUKE of Cambridge has asked whether social media platforms are doing enough to prevent suicide, after meeting the father of a teenager who killed herself having viewed graphic content on Instagram.

William and the Duchess of Cambridge met Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, who took her own life in November 2017 at the age of just 14.

Mr Russell has said he believes Instagram was partly responsible for her death. Visiting the Troubadour White City Theatre in London, William and Kate offered Mr Russell their condolences, and William asked him: “Do you think companies like Instagram are doing enough?”

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Russell said: “My thoughts on Instagram are, we’re grateful that they’re doing something but I think they’re only really inching

Support from the royal family, perhaps, particularly helps.

Ian Russell, daughter of Molly Russell who took her own life after seeing Instagram images.

along the road, and they need to do a lot more.”

Mr Russell also disclosed that the duke had been in touch with the family earlier this year to offer his support, and added: “Support from all ends helps, support from the Royal Family, perhaps, particularly helps.” The Duke and Duchess were attending an event with the charity Shout, celebrating its volunteers who use a text service to assist people in crisis. Since its launch in 2018, 1,500 volunteers have had 145,000 text conversations with people in crisis, exchanging a total of six million messages. Instagram has been under scrutiny following self-harm incidents. It was reported the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said Molly’s case had “hit me in the chest” and said he was changing policy to remove all graphic selfharm images from the site.