Blame for the death of a schoolgirl who took her own life has been laid squarely at the door of social media companies.
Online material viewed by Molly Russell in the run up to her death ‘was not safe’, senior coroner Andrew Walker has concluded.
The teenager from London died in November 2017 after viewing ‘graphic’ content on platforms like Instagram.
In a hearing which put social media in the spotlight, he said material she was consuming in the lead up to her death ‘shouldn’t have been available for a child to see’.
After a five-year wait for answers, it was ruled the 14-year-old died from an act of self-harm while suffering from ‘depression and the negative effects of online content’.
The coroner added: ‘Molly was at a transition period in her young life which made certain elements of communication difficult.’
He added the 14-year-old was ‘exposed to material that may have influenced her in a negative way and, in addition, what had started as a depression had become a more serious depressive illness’.
Mr Walker said he did not ‘think it would be safe’ to leave suicide as a conclusion for himself to consider, instead finding Molly ‘died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content’.
The coroner said some of the content Molly viewed was ‘particularly graphic’ and ‘normalised her condition’, focusing on a ‘limited’ view without any counter-balance.
Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, told tech giants to ‘get a moral compass and step up’.
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