Instagram was, in part, responsible for the suicide of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old teenager, according to the official report of a coroner. It is the conclusion after an investigation delving into the content consumption habits, especially on social networks, of the victim.
According to coroner Andrew Walker, he had interaction with a large amount of material during the last months of his life who suffered from “negative effects of consuming online content.” He has also said, during a London court hearing, that Molly Russell should not have been exposed to much of the content that she had access to.
According to the investigation, much of the content he consumed was images of self-harm and suicide, available on Instagram Y pinterest. Walker also explained that Molly Russell’s death could not be determined simply as suicide.
“It is possible that the material consumed by Molly, who was already suffering from a depressive illness and was especially vulnerable at her age, had negatively affected and contributed to her death, and not in a minimal way,” he explained.
During the hearing, Elizabeth Lagone, director of health and wellness at Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent company) admitted that the teenager had access to content that violated the platform’s rules of use. She apologized too. A Pinterest executive also did so for the way his company displayed inappropriate content that was unsafe for someone Molly Russell’s age.
A child psychologist present in court explained that the teenager was in danger by having access to these types of content. Especially considering her state of mental health. In addition, one of the teachers at the school that Molly Russell attended, provided evidence of the impossibility of keeping a record of the risks to which students are subjected when they have access to social networks.
According to the forensic report, Molly Russell was able to observe some 16,000 pieces of content in the last six months of her life. Of which 2,100 were related to suicide, self-harm or depression. In addition, it was discovered that the teenager made a collection of 469 images of these themes on Pinterest.
Molly Russell had access to content that romanticizes suicide
The coroner also recalled, in his statements, that many of the contents romanticize suicide and depression. Others encourage teens 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 the way he felt. Among others, there were retweets from an account with more than 200,000 followers that posts depression-related quotes. Although it stopped publishing new content in April 2021, it is still available and open to anyone.
Twitter is not part of the hearings related to the effects of social networks in the death of Molly Russell. Forensic analyzes determined that his use of that social network was anecdotal.
After the death of Molly Russell, the image of the teenager has become, in the United Kingdom, in a symbol of the fight against the negative effect that social networks can have on adolescents.