{"id":21703,"date":"2026-01-26T08:37:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T07:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/26\/life-after-molly-ian-russell-on-big-tech-his-daughters-death-and-why-a-social-media-ban-wont-work\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T08:37:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T07:37:25","slug":"life-after-molly-ian-russell-on-big-tech-his-daughters-death-and-why-a-social-media-ban-wont-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/26\/life-after-molly-ian-russell-on-big-tech-his-daughters-death-and-why-a-social-media-ban-wont-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Life after Molly: Ian Russell on big tech, his daughter\u2019s death \u2013 and why a social media ban won\u2019t work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Molly Russell was just 14 when she took her own life in 2017, and an inquest later found negative online content was a significant factor. With many people now pushing for teenagers to be kept off tech platforms, her father explains why he backs a different approach<\/p>\n

Ian Russell describes his life as being split into two parts: before and after 20 November 2017, the day his youngest daughter, Molly, took her own life as a result of depression and negative social media content. \u201cOur life before Molly\u2019s death was very ordinary. Unremarkable,\u201d he says. He was a television producer and director, married with three daughters. \u201cWe lived in an ordinary London suburb, in an ordinary semi-detached house, the children went to ordinary schools.\u201d The weekend before Molly\u2019s death, they had a celebration for all three girls\u2019 birthdays, which are in November. One was turning 21, another 18 and Molly was soon to be 15. \u201cAnd I remember being in the kitchen of a house full of friends and family and thinking, \u2018This is so good. I\u2019ve never been so happy,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThat was on a Saturday night and the following Tuesday morning, everything was different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second part of Russell\u2019s life has been not only grief and trauma, but also a commitment to discovering and exposing the truth about the online content that contributed to Molly\u2019s death, and campaigning to prevent others falling prey to the same harms. Both elements lasted far longer than he anticipated. It took nearly five years to get enough information out of social media companies for an inquest to conclude<\/a> that Molly died \u201cfrom an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content\u201d. As for the campaigning, the Molly Rose Foundation<\/a> provides support, conducts research and raises awareness of online harms, and Russell has been an omnipresent spokesperson on these issues.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nMolly Russell was just 14 when she took her own life in 2017, and an inquest later found negative online content was a significant factor. With many people now pushing for teenagers to be kept off tech platforms, her father explains why he backs a different approach
\nIan Russell describes his life as being split into two parts: before and after 20 November 2017, the day his youngest daughter, Molly, took her own life as a result of depression and negative social media content. \u201cOur life before Molly\u2019s death was very ordinary. Unremarkable,\u201d he says. He was a television producer and director, married with three daughters. \u201cWe lived in an ordinary London suburb, in an ordinary semi-detached house, the children went to ordinary schools.\u201d The weekend before Molly\u2019s death, they had a celebration for all three girls\u2019 birthdays, which are in November. One was turning 21, another 18 and Molly was soon to be 15. \u201cAnd I remember being in the kitchen of a house full of friends and family and thinking, \u2018This is so good. I\u2019ve never been so happy,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThat was on a Saturday night and the following Tuesday morning, everything was different.\u201d
\nThe second part of Russell\u2019s life has been not only grief and trauma, but also a commitment to discovering and exposing the truth about the online content that contributed to Molly\u2019s death, and campaigning to prevent others falling prey to the same harms. Both elements lasted far longer than he anticipated. It took nearly five years to get enough information out of social media companies for an inquest to conclude that Molly died \u201cfrom an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content\u201d. As for the campaigning, the Molly Rose Foundation provides support, conducts research and raises awareness of online harms, and Russell has been an omnipresent spokesperson on these issues. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Molly Russell was just 14 when she took her own life in 2017, and an inquest later found negative online content was a significant factor. With many people now pushing for teenagers to be kept off tech platforms, her father explains why he backs a different approach Ian Russell describes his life as being split …<\/p>\n

Life after Molly: Ian Russell on big tech, his daughter\u2019s death \u2013 and why a social media ban won\u2019t work<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21703"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}