”Instagram Helped Kill My Daughter” – BBC News

Transcript news (mid-test)


”Instagram Helped Kill My Daughter” – BBC News

Molly Russell, 14, took her own life in 2017. When her family looked into her Instagram account they found distressing material about depression and suicide.

“I have no doubt, that Instagram helped killed my daughter”, “She had so much to offer and that’s gone”, “I’m sorry, I did this because of me..” these are the first sentences from her father in the video, showing how sad he is.

“We have news that phrase this is unimportant this is not life or death, well this is.” Said Ged Flynn who runs suicide prevention charity Papyrus.

“Molly was the youngest of three sisters. At that time, she seems to be a very ordinary teenager. She was 14. She was future looking. She was enthusiastic. She headed to home again that night, she packed her bag and was preparing to go to school the next day. And then we woke up the next morning, she was dead.” Her dad stated.

Around 200 British schoolchildren take their own lives each year. Molly Russell was one of them

“It’s just very sad and.. I think you realize in an instant that your life would never be the same”

“Since her death, we’ve been able to look back and just scratched the services some of the social media accounts that she being following. I remember this one, that picture, “the world is so cruel and I don’t wanna see it anymore”

Picture on Instagram she followed

”There are accounts for people who depressed or self-harming or suicidal, and she had got a lot of such a content. Some of that contents seem to be quite positive, pro to people who would try to help each other around, find ways to remain positive to stop self-harming, but some of the content is shocking, another encourages self-harm it links self-harm to suicide, and I have no doubt that Intagram helped kill my daughter” her father added.

We found there instagram posts with graphic image of self-harm. Hashtags (#selfharm #suicide) guide users to more. There were bleak images and videos on depression and suicide.

“The posts of much account are black and white, they sort of fatalistic there’s no hope. Join our club, you’re depressed I’m depressed, there’s a lot of it. Come inside this special club. We didn’t know that anything on that could possibly exist on a platform like Instagram and it’s still there. They still are widely that easy to find, they are not hidden. They are very publicly available and I think tens of thousands of the children in this country looking at them.” Said Molly’s father.

Ged Flynn runs the suicide prevention charity Papyrus.

“What do thought on what you just see?” asked Molly’s father.

“I was gonna say I’m not surprised. But I am. Suicide in a hashtag is an unimaginable devastating tragedy.” Flynn answered.

Instagram’s algorithm helps users to locate this kind of content. Follow one account and the site offers you more and more.

“Even an algorithm behind the social media platform is engineer to think cause further access. In this case, it must be locked up more seriously than if it means the more I typing flowers the more flowers I get, fine”

“The law around suicide is very clear. Adding and encouraging somebody to end their life by suicide is illegal. Anybody who on or off line through imagery or words verbally return says you should do it or you could do it like this is at least potentially complicit” said Flynn.

“Is that makes instagram complicit?” Molly’s father asked him again.

“I would say then it looked long and hard about changing the algorithms to save lives and do it now” He answered.

Instagram didn’t want to be interviewed, but told us:

We work closely with experts across the world to provide the Instagram community with support. We do not allow content that promotes or glorifies eating disorders, self-harm or suicide and will remove content of this kind.

The site doesn’t display warnings for some search items. But users can simply skip and ignore the help on offer.

“It cannot be right those child can freely access such graphic imagery. Social media in the industry cannot continue to say, for example we’ve put a help but none the.., but if the algorithms spot you using like suicide and self-harm three or four times we’ll have you a chance to get help. A child can easily possible to say no thank you.” Flynn added.

“So if I have a message for the industries, take this seriously. Suicide is the leading cause of death in children, how bad does it need to get?” Flynn stated.

“She left a note, and we are lucky to have notes of the her death because she tried to explain how she felt” said her dad.

The note says:

-I’m the problem in everyone’s life. I love you all. Stay strong. I’m proud of you.-

“Bless you Molly” Added her dad after reading the note.

“Everyone who knew Molly was looking for the way that she would grow up, to the person she would become. She had so much to offer and that’s gone. We’ve to come the terms of that the hard thing is that hope’s gone with the help of the internet and social media” the ending sentences from Molly’s dad.

Reference:

BBC News. (2019, January 22^nd). "Instagram helped kill my daughter"- BBC News [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3x1yT59uyo&list=PLS3XGZxi7cBVNadbxDqZCUgISvabEpu-g&index=17&t=0s