Prince William has called for improved online safety for children after a coroner ruled social media contributed to the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell.
The Prince of Wales said: “No parent should ever have to endure what Ian Russell and his family have been through. They have been so incredibly brave. Online safety for our children and young people needs to be a prerequisite, not an afterthought.”
The schoolgirl from Harrow, northwest London, was found dead in her bedroom after viewing content related to suicide, depression and anxiety online.
Executives from Pinterest and Instagram’s parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook, were forced to attend her inquest in person.
Andrew Walker, the coroner, said he did not “think it would be safe” to give suicide as Molly’s cause of death, instead opting for self-harm.
Giving his findings on Friday, he said: “Molly was at a transition period in her young life which made certain elements of communication difficult.”
She 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”, he told North London Coroner’s Court.
Mr Walker also said the “particularly graphic” content she saw “romanticised acts of self-harm”, “normalised her condition” and focused on a “limited and irrational view without any counterbalance of normality”.
Read more: The digital trail that sheds light on final months of Molly Russell’s life
Since Molly’s death in November 2017, her father Ian Russell has campaigned for better protections against potentially dangerous social media algorithms.
Mr Russell said after the inquest: “We have heard a senior Meta executive describe this deadly stream of content the…
Source : skynews
