Molly Russell was a 14-year-old British girl who became famous for taking her own life after watching self-harming videos online. According to her family, she never showed any signs of mental illness at the time of taking her life.
Her father, Ian Russell after discovering the kind of videos Molly was watching, a few months up until her death, requested an inquest to ascertain the cause of her death. He believes that Instagram is partly responsible for Molly’s death.
Who is Molly Russell?
Molly Russell was born in 2002, in Harrow, North West London which was also where she was brought up by her parents, Ian and Janet Russell. For the most part, she had what was believed to be a normal childhood together with her siblings, Rebecca Russell and Alice Russell.
Described as an easy-going girl who also suffered from isolation, Molly was a student of Hatch End High School, Harrow, Middlesex.
Sadly, her life was cut short after Molly took her life in November 2017, at the age of 14.
Sad Details About Molly’s Death
The night before her death, Molly handed her homework and packed her bags ready for school the next day. Sadly, she was discovered dead the next morning.
According to her father, Molly did not show any sign of mental health issues before her death. However, he found disturbing material about anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide on her Instagram, which suggests she has been battling mental illness for quite some time.
After her death, Ian Russell discovered that Molly has been interacting with social media accounts that promoted self-harm. He recalled seeing an account Molly followed on social media, that featured an image of a blindfolded girl, hugging a teddy bear with the caption “This world is so cruel, and I don’t wanna see it anymore”.
Most of the accounts Molly followed were of people who were depressed, self-harming, or suicidal. However, there was some content that was positive, perhaps of people who were trying to help each other out, find ways to remain positive and refrain from self-harming.
This revealed that Molly Russell has been struggling with battles she did not share with her parents and iblings. Ian strongly believes that Instagram is partly responsible for the death of his daughter, Molly.
Another social media platform, Pinterest, an image sharing designed to enable saving and discovering ideas, hosts pictures of self-harming pictures, that can be seen by children over the age of 13. Pinterest’s algorithms suggest content that might interest its users based on frequent searches.
Ian found personalized emails containing images of self-harm in Molly’s email, which were sent by the said social media platform. One of the emails sent by Pinterest to Molly included a picture featuring a girl with a cut thigh and was captioned “I can’t tell you how many times I wish I was dead”.
Ian Russell began a campaign for regulating social media platforms, in other to shield young people from damaging content. He requested an inquest, which has been delayed multiple times due to legal and procedural issues.
More so, Molly’s family also started a foundation, the Molly Rose Foundation which is suicide prevention organization designe towards helping at risk young people under the age of 25 who are at risk of suicide.
See Also: Bobby Heenan: His Life, Wife, Career, And Cause of Death
Inquest About Molly Russell’s Death
Following the sad death of Molly and the accusations by her father against Meta, the company which owns Instagram, and Pinterest, an inquest has been ordered towards uncovering how the algorithms of the social media channel content to users. It is due to last for 2 weeks, and executives from both companies will appear in person and present evidence before the coroner.
Meta would likely defend themselves against allegations on internal documents revealed by former employee and whistleblower, Frances Haugen. It includes research carried out on the impact of the platform on the mental health of young people.
Subsequently, Meta discovered that Molly watched 12,576 pieces of Instagram content six months before her death. She has more than 15,000 engagements on Pinterest, including 3,000 saves. Molly engaged in social media posts about 130 times a day.
Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport of the United Kingdom, said that Online Safety Bill would return to the House of Commons for a review. It will help in preventing a repeat of what happened to14-year-old Molly.
She promised that there will be edits and tweaks to maintain freedom of speech while censoring content posted online.
Research on the effects of exposure to self-harm on social media shows that deliberate self-harm tends to be repetitive and largely non-suicidal, but it increases the risk of future suicide, especially among young people. It is the second-leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds according to WHO. Other famous people who have committed suicide in the past include Elliott Smith and Nancy Motes.
