senior coroner to make findings on whether social media contributed to schoolgirl’s death Molly Russell.
Coroner Andrew Walker expressed concern about North London Coroner’s Court on the platforms during the two-week inquest, says the ability to make social media safe should not “slip away”.
Molly, from eg in the northwest Londonended her life in November 2017 at the age of 14, prompting her family to campaign for better internet safety.
The inquest heard how the teen gained access to material from the “ghetto of the online world”, with her family claiming that sites such as Pinterest and Instagram endorsed accounts or posts that “promoted” suicide and self-harm.
The head of health and wellness at Instagram’s parent company meta and the head of community activities at Pinterest both apologized for investigating the content Molly viewed.
Meta executive Elizabeth Lagone said she believed messages the Russell family claimed encouraged suicide were safe when the teen viewed them.
Pinterest’s Judson Hoffman told the inquest the site was “not safe” when Molly was using it.
The inquest was told from the 16,300 posts Molly had saved, shared or liked on Instagram in the six months before her death, 2,100 were depression, self-harm or suicide related.
The court played 17 clips the teen watched on the site – prompting the coroner’s “greatest warning.”
The survey also learned details of emails sent to Molly by Pinterest, with headlines such as “10 depression pins you might like” and “new ideas for you in depression.”
Mr Walker will present his conclusions to the court on Friday.