Molly’s death ‘has not pricked Instagram’s conscience’

THE father of Molly Russell has claimed Instagram’s conscience has not been “pricked” by the death of his daughter, after a “disappointing” response was sent to a coroner.

The criticism by Ian Russell comes as ministers decide today whether to offer concessions to nearly 50 Tory MPS seeking to jail social media bosses who fail to protect children from online harms or risk defeat on their amendment tomorrow when the Online Safety Bill returns to the Commons.

In a further intervention, the Samaritans have also warned that graphic depictions of self-harm and suicide online will continue to put young people at risk of harm despite the introduction of proposed new laws in the Bill.

An inquest last year concluded that social media played a part in the death of 14-year-old Molly, who took her own life in her bedroom in November 2017.

Battling depression, the schoolgirl had spent months bingeing on suicide and self-harm imagery on platforms including Instagram, which is owned by Meta, as well as Pinterest.

Andrew Walker, the senior coroner who heard the case, set out a wide array of concerns about children using the platforms. All three social media firms have since written back to the coroner to explain their response to the tragedy, but Mr Russell has expressed his “disappointment” at the lack of meaningful action that they contain.

Meta, in an eight-page letter, reiterated many of the points its head of health and wellbeing policy, Elizabeth Lagone, made during her evidence to the inquest last year. It said that users could “mute”, unfollow or hide material from accounts to control what content they see and claimed it had introduced “sensitive content control” that allows users to choose whether or not to view potentially “sensitive content”.

Mr Russell claimed, in practice, this meant that much of the harmful imagery with which Molly had been bombarded was still available on the platform and could be found in a matter of minutes. He said: “You hear these statements trotted out, yet you look on Instagram today and you still find harmful content; it’s really easy to find some of the content that Molly saw.

“You think, ‘how can we believe your words when your platform still has the content that a coroner concluded was part of the reason that Molly died?’.”

He added: “I don’t think [that] Meta’s conscience has been pricked. I think individuals within the company may have been personally affected by tales like Molly’s, but those tragedies don’t translate to change at boardroom level.”