The Molly Rose Story

Molly Russell was a 14 year old girl from North West London who took her own life in 2017 due to Social Media. The social media she specifically used was Instagram and Pinterest. There she saw graphic posts about suicide and self harming posts that her family later found and discovered. Her Father in particular discovered that she has been looking at harmful content online specifically Instagram. He began to speak out, making headlines around the world and forcing Instagram into a promise to remove the most harmful content. She was suffering depression and the negative effects of online content, she was exposed to material that may have influenced her in a negative way which started her depression and had become a more serious depressive illness. Her father Ian Russell began a campaign to remove that harmful content from social media. Molly father continues to reflect on his journey for justice, and the influence of Molly's story. The final conclusion on this inquest was that they truly believe that the public discourse on internet safety would not be where it is without the determined work of Molly's family. The inquest found that in the six months before her death, Molly viewed and interacted with tens of thousands of posts containing graphic depictions of self harm injuries and suicide. She attended Hatch end high school in Harrow, northwest London. The head teacher named Sue Maguire said that hearing about the 14 year old student in November 2017 was a 'complete and terrible shock to the school'. She added that the school had warned students about the 'dangers of social media for a long time'.