The senior coroner at the coroner's court of North London said that social media platforms were responsible for the death of Molly Russell. Russell died as a result of self- harm in November of last year.
A British coroner is able to investigate and determine the cause of death. This was not a criminal or civil trial, and the companies don't have to pay any fines. The case against the tech giants was brought by Russell's family to raise awareness of the dangers of social media.
Russell received an iPad as a 13th birthday gift, after she created anInstagram at age 12. Russell's parents say she was acting like a normal teenager before she died. She was looking forward to the play. The gloomier moments earlier in the year were normal adolescent moods.
Two weeks after Russell's death, her father found an email about depression pins. A folder on Russell's account contained disturbing images and quotes, including one that read "Who would love a suicidal girl?".
Mr. Russell spoke about his daughter's story in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation. It took more than 1,000 hours for the family's legal team to review thousands of pages from Molly Russell's social media accounts. According to data that Meta disclosed to her family, about 2200 of those posts were related to suicide, self- harm and depression. Many of those posts were linked to explicit content and encouraged to hide emotional distress.
According to the New York Times, a courtroom worker left the room to avoid viewing a set of suicide videos on social media. The child psychologist who served as an expert witness said that he lost sleep for weeks because he was disturbed by the material that Russell viewed.
Meta has a head of health and well-being policy. Russell read a post that he had seen on social media and heard how she had copied it. The lawyer for the family said that this is giving Molly ideas.
Ms. Lagone said that it was important for the platform to allow users to express their unhappiness openly as a cry for help. "My platform was not safe during the time Molly was on it and I deeply regrets and apologizes for the material she had viewed," said the head of community operations at Pinterest. Since the beginning of the year, there has been significant investment in suppressing harmful content.
The "Online Safety Bill" is a piece of legislation inspired by Russell and her family. There is a new duty of care on the part of online platforms towards their users.
Molly's father said that anyone who knew her was looking forward to the way she would grow up. With the help of the internet and social media, she lost so much.
Please talk to someone if you are feeling depressed or suicidal. You can call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline at 988, or the Trans Lifeline at (877) 565-8860. Text the word "start" to 741-741. The help line is open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. Email info@nami.org You can use the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline at crisischat.org if you don't want to use the phone. International resources are listed here.
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