Meta donates to online safety charity set up in memory of Molly Russell

Social media giants Meta and Pinterest have donated to a charity set up in memory of Molly Russell, a British teenager who was exposed to harmful content on their platforms.

Molly, 14, was found dead in November 2017 after taking her own life in her bedroom. Suffering from depression and anxiety, she had spent months browsing dark content on social media.

Particularly towards the end of her life, Molly often “binged” on distressing images and videos at night when her family was asleep.

Meta, which owns Instagram, and Pinterest both made anonymous donations to the Molly Rose Foundation, which campaigns for internet safety, the BBC reported. Both Meta and Pinterest declined to comment.

The story of Molly, whose middle name was Rose, provoked calls for duty-of-care legislation to protect children from harmful content online, for which The Telegraph campaigned.

An inquest in September 2022 ended with Andrew Walker, the senior coroner, saying that social media “more than minimally contributed” to the death of the schoolgirl.

A subsequent investigation by The Telegraph found that the self-harm content that helped drive Molly to suicide was still online five years later.

The payments made by Meta and Pinterest are reported to have started in 2024 and are expected to continue for a number of years.

A statement released by the Russell family’s solicitor said: “Following the coroner’s inquest into Molly’s death, we have decided that we will pursue the aims we share with Meta and Pinterest through the Molly Rose Foundation, to help ensure young people have a positive experience online, instead of pursuing legal action.

“We, Molly’s family, have always made clear that we would never accept compensation consequent upon Molly’s death.”

Ian Russell, Molly’s father and a trustee of the charity, criticised Labour in March over its implementation of the Online Safety Act.

He said bereaved parents who lost their children through their contact with social media were “losing trust” in the Government and said nothing had changed since his daughter’s death in 2017.

The Online Safety Act is being gradually implemented, with codes imposing legal duties on social media companies to protect children from online harms, including sex abuse, hate speech, terrorism and self-harm.

Mr Russell is among campaigners who believe the implementation of the act is taking too long and does not go far enough, giving the tech firms too much scope to regulate themselves.

In January, the Molly Rose Foundation warned that Meta’s “bonfire” of safety measures had made Facebook and Instagram as dangerous as they were when the 14-year-old took her own life.