Instagram was partly responsible for the suicide of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old, according to the official coroner’s report. This is the conclusion following an investigation into the victim’s content consumption habits, especially on social media.
According to coroner Andrew Walker, in the last months of his life, he interacted with a large amount of material that suffered from the “negative consequences of consuming online content.” He also stated during a court hearing in London that Molly Russell should not have been exposed to much of the content she had access to.
According to the investigation, most of the content he consumed was images of self-harm and suicide available on Instagram D pinterest. Walker also explained that Molly Russell’s death cannot simply be defined as a suicide.
“It is possible that the material consumed by Molly, who already suffered from a depressive illness and was especially vulnerable at her age, negatively affected and contributed to her death, and not to a minimal extent,” he explained.
During the hearing, Elisabeth Lagone, director of health and wellness at Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), admitted that the teen had access to content that violated the platform’s terms of use. He also apologized. The Pinterest executive also did this because his company was showing inappropriate content that was unsafe for a person of Molly Russell’s age.
A child psychologist who was present at the trial explained that the teenager was in danger by having access to this kind of material. Especially considering his mental state. In addition, one of the teachers at the school Molly Russell attended presented evidence of the inability to keep records of the risks that students are exposed to when they have access to social media.
According to a forensic report, Molly Russell was able to view about 16,000 pieces of content in the last six months of her life. Of which 2,100 were associated with suicide, self-harm, or depression. In addition, it turned out that the teenager made a collection of 469 images on this topic on Pinterest.
Molly Russell had access to content that romanticizes suicide
The coroner also recalled in his statements that many of the stories romanticize suicide and depression. Others urge teenagers not to talk about their feelings and thoughts with people who can help.
He also created a secret Twitter account where he posted content related to how he felt. Among other things, there were retweets from an account with over 200,000 followers that posts quotes related to depression. Although it stopped posting new content in April 2021, it is still available and open to everyone.
Twitter is not part of the hearing related to social media’s influence on Molly Russell’s death. The forensic examination found that his use of this social network was anecdotal.
After the death of Molly Russell, the image of a teenager in the United Kingdom became as a symbol of the fight against the negative impact of social networks on adolescents.
Source: Hiper Textual
