Death of Molly Russell

In November 2017, Molly Russell, a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl from Harrow, London, was found dead in her bedroom by her parents. Russell was a pupil at Hatch End High School. Her parents later stated that she had never shown any previous signs of struggle and was doing well in school.

An inquest into her death examined her use of social media platforms, including Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, on which she had documented her growing depression. It was revealed at the inquest that in the six months prior to her death, 2,100 of the 16,300 pieces of content she had interacted with on Instagram concerned topics such as self-harm, depression, and suicide. The inquest heard that there were no warning signs presented to her about the material she viewed on these platforms. Hatch End High School's head teacher expressed shock at the inquest that Russell had been able to access such distressing online content.

Dr. Navin Venugopal, a child psychiatrist assigned to investigate her death, described the material she had viewed as "disturbing and distressing" and said he had been unable to sleep well for weeks after viewing it himself.

Coroner Andrew Walker concluded that Molly's death was "an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content." Following the inquest, he issued a prevention of future deaths report containing recommendations for operators of online platforms, including separating platforms for adults and children, introducing age verification, changing policies on filtering age-specific content, adding parental supervision and control features, and retaining data on material viewed by children. He suggested these changes could be achieved through legislation or self-regulation.

The lawyer representing the Russell family at the inquest stated that the coroner's findings "captured all of the elements of why this material is so harmful." The case has since been cited as a motivating factor behind the passage of the Online Safety Act.

In Molly Russell's memory, a charity called the Molly Rose Foundation was established with the goal of suicide prevention among young people. Meta and Pinterest are believed to have made substantial donations to the charity.