TikTok and Instagram still recommend suicide and self-harm content 'at industrial scale' eight years after Molly Russell's death

Daily Mail​

15 hours ago

Suicide and self-harm content is still recommended to teenagers 'at industrial scale' by TikTok and Instagram eight years after Molly Russell's tragic death, according to new research.
The Molly Rose Foundation found that social media algorithms are 'putting young lives at risk' as they recommend depression, suicide and self-harm content to accounts opened as a 15-year-old-girl.
The foundation - set up by Ian Russell after his 14-year-old daughter Molly took her own life having viewed harmful content online - is calling for the Prime Minister to introduce tougher measures to stop 'preventable harm happening on his watch'.
The report, Pervasive-by-design, was conducted in the weeks leading up to the implementation of the Online Safety Act and claims that social media platforms are 'gaming Ofcom 's new rules'.
Molly Rose said its research found the material recommended by both TikTok and Instagram now 'would have the same harmful impact as content which Molly Russell saw before her death in 2017'.
The foundation carried out previous research in 2023 and said its latest report 'suggest things remain unchanged or have gotten worse'.
The charity found that, on teenage accounts which had engaged with suicide, self-harm and depression posts, algorithms continue to 'bombard young people with a tsunami of harmful content on Instagram Reels and TikTok's For You page'.
Mr Russell, the Molly Rose chairman, said: 'It is staggering that, eight years after Molly's death, incredibly harmful suicide, self-harm and depression content like she saw is still pervasive across social media.'
The foundation has previously been critical of regulator Ofcom's child safety codes for not being strong enough and said its research showed they 'do not match the sheer scale of harm being suggested to vulnerable users and ultimately do little to prevent more deaths like Molly's'.
Mr Russell added: 'For over a year, this entirely preventable harm has been happening on the Prime Minister's watch and where Ofcom have been timid it is time for him to be strong and bring forward strengthened, life-saving legislation without delay.'
The report found that 97 per cent of the videos it was recommended on Instagram Reels and 96 per cent of those suggested on TikTok were 'harmful'. The videos also had a 'deeply disturbing levels of reach' with some 'liked' more than a million times.
Rani Govender, from child safety charity the NSPCC, described the report's findings are 'deeply alarming and utterly unacceptable' and said 'tech companies must act urgently to prevent the spread of this deeply damaging suicide and self-harm content'.
However TikTok said it has made significant safety improvements and enforces strict rules against suicide or self-harm content. It is understood it 'completely rejects' claims it is 'gaming' safety requirements.
A spokesman added: 'With over 99 per cent of violative content proactively removed by TikTok, the findings don't reflect the real experience of people on our platform which the report admits.'
A spokesman for Meta said the research is not representative of the experience of Instagram's users and 'we disagree with the assertions of this report and the limited methodology behind it'.
They added: 'We continue to use automated technology to remove content encouraging suicide and self-injury, with 99 per cent proactively actioned before being reported to us.'
It comes as separate research found that the proportion of children who have seen pornography online has risen in the past two years and most are likely to have stumbled upon it accidentally.
Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said her research is evidence that harmful content is being presented to children through dangerous algorithms, rather than them seeking it out.
She described the content young people are seeing as 'violent, extreme and degrading' and often illegal, and said her findings must be seen as a 'snapshot of what rock bottom looks like'.
Made up of responses from 1,020 people aged between 16 and 21 years old and carried out in May, the report found that children were on average aged 13 when they first saw porn but 27 per cent said they were 11 and some reported being 'six or younger'.
The report, a follow-on from research by the Children's Commissioner's office in 2023, found a higher proportion - 70 per cent - of people saying they had seen online pornography before turning 18, up from 64 per cent two years ago.
Dame Rachel said: 'This report must act as a line in the sand. The findings set out the extent to which the technology industry will need to change for their platforms to ever keep children safe.'