Molly Russell's Dad urges social media firms not to 'drag their feet'

The coroner in charge of the inquest into the death of north London teenager Molly Russell has recommended social media platforms should be separated for adults and children.

Last month, he concluded Molly died from an act of self-harm, due to depression and the effects of online content.

Andrew Walker's also called for an independent regulator.

Today, Molly's father Ian has urged social media companies not to "drag their feet" in implementing recommendations.

In a statement issued through lawyers, Mr Russell said: "We welcome this report by the coroner, which echoes our concerns about the online dangers Molly was exposed to, and pushed towards by the platforms' algorithms.

"We urge social media companies to heed the coroner's words and not drag their feet waiting for legislation and regulation, but instead to take a proactive approach to self-regulation to make their platforms safer for their young users.

"They should think long and hard about whether their platforms are suitable for young people at all.

"The Government must also act urgently to put in place its robust regulation of social media platforms to ensure that children are protected by from the effects of harmful online content, and that platforms and their senior managers face strong sanctions if they fail to take action to curb the algorithmic amplification of destructive and extremely dangerous content or fail to remove it swiftly.

"I hope this will be implemented swiftly through the Online Safety Bill which must be passed as soon as possible."

Coroner urges social media platforms to make changes.

Today's report from senior coroner Andrew Walker was sent to businesses such as Meta, Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat as well as to Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, telling them: "In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you and/or your organisation have the power to take such action."

He said they were under a duty to respond within 56 days - by December 8 - with "details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out the timetable for action.

"Otherwise you must explain why no action is proposed."

"In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you and/or your organisation have the power to take such action."

Instagram's parent company Meta said it supported more regulation of social media after the coroner in the Molly Russell inquest recommended platforms be required to do more to protect children online.

Coroner Andrew Walker said the Government should consider legislation that reviews the provision of internet platforms to children, with reference to harmful online content, including separate platforms for adults and children.

In response, a Meta company spokesperson said: "We're committed to making Instagram a safe and positive experience for everyone, particularly teenagers, and are reviewing the Coroner's report.

"We agree regulation is needed and we've already been working on many of the recommendations outlined in this report, including new parental supervision tools that let parents see who their teens follow, and limit the amount of time they spend on Instagram.

"We also automatically set teens' accounts to private when they join, nudge them towards different content if they've been scrolling on the same topic for some time and have controls designed to limit the types of content teens see.

"We don't allow content that promotes suicide or self-harm, and we find 98% of the content we take action on before it's reported to us.

"We'll continue working hard, in collaboration with experts, teens and parents, so we can keep improving."

{{news}}