The inquest of a 14-year-old girl who took her own life has been examining the impact of material she viewed on Instagram in the run-up to her death.

Molly Russell inquest: Instagram clips seen by teen 'most distressing'

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2022-09-23 15:00:30

The inquest of a 14-year-old girl who took her own life has been examining the impact of material she viewed on Instagram in the run-up to her death.

Molly Russell, from Harrow, north-west London, engaged with numerous accounts referring to self-harm, depression or suicide before killing herself in 2017.

Ms Lagone, head of health and well-being at the social media giant formerly known as Facebook, told the North London Coroner's Court that suicide and self-harm material could have been posted by a user as a "cry for help".

She said it was an important consideration of the company, even in its policies at the time of Molly's death, to "consider the broad and unbelievable harm that can be done by silencing [an Instagram user's] struggles".

Instagram's guidelines at the time, which were shown to the court, said users were allowed to post content about suicide and self-harm to "facilitate the coming together to support" other users but not if it "encouraged or promoted" this.

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