Ian Russell describes his life as being break up into two elements: earlier than and after 20 November 2017, the day his youngest daughter, Molly, took her personal life on account of melancholy and damaging social media content material. “Our life earlier than Molly’s dying was very strange. Unremarkable,” he says. He was a tv producer and director, married with three daughters. “We lived in an strange London suburb, in an strange semi-detached home, the youngsters went to strange colleges.” The weekend earlier than Molly’s dying, they’d a celebration for all three women’ birthdays, that are in November. One was turning 21, one other 18 and Molly was quickly to be 15. “And I keep in mind being within the kitchen of a home stuffed with family and friends and considering, ‘That is so good. I’ve by no means been so glad,’” he says. “That was on a Saturday night time and the next Tuesday morning, every part was completely different.”
The second a part of Russell’s life has been not solely grief and trauma, but in addition a dedication to discovering and exposing the reality concerning the on-line content material that contributed to Molly’s dying, and campaigning to stop others falling prey to the identical harms. Each components lasted far longer than he anticipated. It took almost 5 years to get sufficient data out of social media corporations for an inquest to conclude that Molly died “from an act of self-harm whereas affected by melancholy and the damaging results of on-line content material”. As for the campaigning, the Molly Rose Foundation supplies assist, conducts analysis and raises consciousness of on-line harms, and Russell has been an omnipresent spokesperson on these points.
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