The social media storm: what has been done?

 

Another month, another moral panic. This time, it isn’t government that’s inciting fear in social media users, it’s parents.

 

In 2017, the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell sparked concern when she seemingly took her life without warning.

 

Since then, her father Ian Russell has come out to say that she was driven to suicide after she was exposed to images of self-harm and suicide on sites like Instagram and Pinterest.

 

John Suler, Professor of Psychology and developer of the Online Disinhibition Effect , says “social media becomes an extension of a person’s own mind, their own thought space, even though they do not consciously realize that's what they’re doing”.

 

Of course, Molly was using sites that were algorithmically tailored to her interests, and in this case that was dark content.

 

But in the wake of her death, parents have kicked up a storm, concerned that social media is contributing to teen suicides.

 

Media giants have been forced to respond to the furore; Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, promised to make a number of changes following Molly’s death .

 

The Facebook-owned app will have ‘sensitivity screens’ that will hide images of self-harm by blurring it unless users explicitly indicate that they want to view it. They have also blocked images of cutting from appearing in search recommendations.

 

Mr Mosseri’s pledge came only a week after Facebook were given an ultimatum by the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, who said they must “purge this content” or face the force of the law.

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Since Nick Clegg joined Facebook as their Global Head of Affairs, he announced that Facebook will take “profound responsibility” in protecting teenagers and are working with the Samaritans  to review their system.

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Pinterest has yet to respond.