UK coroner calls for separate social media sites for children and adults

Separate social media sites for adults and children should be established to prevent vulnerable users from online harm, a UK coroner has recommended following an inquest into the death of teenager Molly Russell.

In a report sent to the government and tech companies Meta, Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat, senior coroner Andrew Walker said ministers should review the way algorithms push content to users and set up an independent body to monitor the safety of online content.

The “prevention of future deaths” report comes after Walker concluded in September that content on social media sites had likely contributed to 14-year-old Russell taking her own life in November 2017.

The teenager from Harrow in North London ended her life after she had “binged” on thousands of posts linked to suicide, depression and self harm on sites including Instagram and Pinterest, some of which were pushed to her by algorithms.

The coroner said she had died from “an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.

Walker wrote in his report he was concerned that parents or guardians did not have access to the content being viewed by children and recommended that the government consider age specific content on platforms and parental controls.

He gave Meta and Pinterest until December 8 to respond to his report, and urged them to self-regulate in order to better protect children and vulnerable users.

The two-week inquest shone a light on the potential dangers of social media content on young people’s mental health, and comes as the government prepares to water down already long-delayed online safety rules that will govern how technology sites are policed.

Ian Russell, Molly’s father, urged social media companies on Friday to “heed the coroner’s words and not drag their feet waiting for legislation and regulation”.

He said the government should “act urgently to put in place its robust regulation of social media platforms to ensure that children are protected from the effects of harmful online content, and that platforms and their senior managers face strong sanctions” if they failed to do so.

The inquest heard that Meta banned graphic self harm and suicide content in 2019, and had never allowed posts that glorified or promoted it. Instagram is currently testing new age verification tools.

However Meta paused plans to introduce Instagram Kids, a product for under-13s, last year following a backlash against it. At the time Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the concept had been a “bad idea” but building a standalone app that offers parents more control and supervision remained the “right thing to do”.

Meta said on Friday it was “committed to making Instagram a safe and positive experience for everyone, particularly teenagers” and agreed that regulation was needed.

“We’ve already been working on many of the recommendations outlined in this report, including new parental supervision tools that let parents see who their teens follow and limit the amount of time they spend on Instagram,” it said.

Pinterest said it was “committed to making ongoing improvements to help ensure that the platform is safe for everyone” and that it had “continued to strengthen our policies around self-harm content”.

The company said it provided “routes to compassionate support for those in need and we’ve invested heavily in building new technologies that automatically identify and take action on self-harm content”.

During the emotionally fraught two-week inquest, Ian Russell said his daughter was trapped in the “bleakest of worlds” online, and blamed social media for “helping to kill” her.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Anyone in the UK affected by the issues raised in this article can contact the Samaritans for free on 116 123