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A senior coroner has concluded schoolgirl Molly Russell died from “negative effects of online content”. Coroner Andrew Walker said online material viewed by the 14-year-old “was not safe” and “shouldn’t have been available for a child to see”. Concluding it would not be “safe” to rule Molly’s cause of death was suicide, Mr Walker said the teenager “died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content”.
In a conclusion at North London Coroner’s Court on Friday, he said: “Molly was at a transition period in her young life which made certain elements of communication difficult.”
He added the teenager 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”.
The inquest heard how Molly accessed material from the “ghetto of the online world” before her death in November 2017, with her family arguing that sites such as Pinterest and Instagram recommended accounts or posts that “promoted” suicide and self-harm.
Molly’s family – including her parents Ian and mother Janet – were seen arriving at the court this morning.
Molly, from Harrow, had viewed thousands of self-harm images before her death in November 2017.
Social media companies were “ignorantly blind” to the dangers of suicidal material on the internet and contributed to the death of Molly Russell, her inquest heard on Wednesday.
Academics have proved the bleak and harmful material “promotes, encourages, and normalises negative self-beliefs and worthlessness”, her family’s lawyer said.
“It encourages a false sense of belonging to a community that certainly can’t do anything to help,” Oliver Sanders, KC, told the inquest.
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The investigation into the tragedy revealed a unique picture into the tormented schoolgirl’s internet use, Mr Sanders told North London Coroners Court.
“It is wrong to think that future inquests would be able to do the same, so we must take the opportunity to make detailed findings,” he added.
Condemning the actions of social media companies like Meta, owners of Instagram and Facebook, Mr Sanders said they were ignorant about the real world.
“We have also seen that the understanding of the risks among social media companies is limited and this lack of understanding is made even more serious by the same companies developing new technologies.”
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