Social Media Harms
Teen’s Death, North London U.K. Coroner Finds Social Media “Contributed More than Minimally” to Her Death
Instagram and Pinterest Algorithms Promoted Harmful, Unrequested Content, Encouraged Binge Watching at Crucial Time
Warning: This article contains information that may be disturbing to some readers. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, please don’t. You are not alone. Help is available. In the U.S., call 988, the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. In the U.K., help is available at Papyrus and the Molly Rose Foundation . For international users, contact https://findahelpline.com/i/iasp
Fourteen year-old Molly Rose Russell was a seemingly happy, well-adjusted girl. Unknown to friends and family, a year before her death, she had created an anonymous Twitter account to help her process her feelings of loneliness and depression. She also extensively used Instagram and Pinterest. Records show that in the last six months of her life, Molly accessed her Instagram account up to 120 times per day, “liking” 11,000 posts. It is estimated that she accessed Pinterest more than 15,000 times during that same period.
On September 30, 2022, North London Coroner, Andrew Walker, publicly released findings from the inquest into Molly’s death . He concluded that Molly died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content.
- Senior Coroner Walker stated that images of self-harm and suicide Molly viewed “shouldn’t have been available for a child to see.”
He determined that Instagram and Pinterest used algorithms that encouraged “binge periods” of viewing algorithmically selected harmful content.
Meta’s head of health and wellbeing policy, Elizabeth Lagone, testified that she did not agree that teens viewing posts containing content relating to the promotion of suicide, depression and self-harm was harmful, while admitting that some of the posts Molly viewed violated Instagram’s terms of use.
Instagram documents submitted to the inquest showed that Molly saved 2,100 Instagram images related to depression, self-harm and suicide in the last six months of her life.
Pinterest global head of community operations, Judson Hoffman, testified earlier in the inquest that Pinterest hosted harmful content on its platform that did not conform to its terms of use, that Pinterest was not safe for children and that content remained on the site that should have been removed.
In the months closer to Molly’s death, the content of Molly’s Pinterest feed included posts that were focused on depression, self-harm and suicide. Mr. Hoffman stated that he understood that the content Molly was being exposed to had changed radically in the last months of her life. He stated:
“I deeply regret that she [Molly] was able to access some of the content shown.”
How You Can Help
In her memory, Molly’s family created the Molly Rose Foundation, dedicated to connecting young people under the age of 25 to resources that can help them with depression and other mental health issues
In the United States, the Screentime Action Network , is advocating for the passage of two bills up for consideration in the Senate that would greatly increase online safety for children and teens: the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) and Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Both bills were reintroduced in the U.S. Senate in May 2023. COPPA 2.0 bans targeted advertising to children, which often unrequested and can negatively influence kids and teens. KOSA compels companies to design platforms appropriate for use by children and teens and would require technology companies to share their studies with vetted academic institutions.
An easy way to contact your senator is to access this link.
According to the not-for-profit organization, Open Secrets, In 2022, Meta spent $10.78M and Bytedance, the company that runs TikTok, spent $3.29M lobbying against ANY technology regulation.
These bills will only move forward if voters insist that they do.
Please take 5 minutes and contact your Senator. The safety and well-being of our kids depends on it.
Social Media Harms provides a listing of peer-reviewed studies, scholarly books, and articles from organizations that adhere to journalistic standards that document the negative effects of social media use. The site also lists links to organizations dedicated to reducing the harms created by social media platforms and other online services. We do not solicit donations, however, we are asking for additions to our lists of peer reviewed studies and authoritative books and articles.
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