A Pinner-based charity, aimed at supporting young people online, has shared its views following the Labour government’s first King’s Speech.
In 2017, Molly Russell, a student from Pinner, died from an act of self-harm after suffering from the negative effects of online content. Since then, her father, Ian Russell MBE, has been working to support mental health in people under 25 and has set up the Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) to raise awareness of suicide prevention.
On Wednesday, July 17, His Majesty King Charles III delivered the Labour government’s speech in the House of Lords, detailing a new data preservation process that will enable coroners to access online information about a child when investigating their death. The news has been welcomed by Mr Russell.
He said: “We hugely welcome the government’s commitment to give a legal right to bereaved parents to access their child’s data. No parent should be denied information about whether social media contributed to their child’s death.
“However, the government must now go further and impose a Duty of Candour on tech companies that would make it an offence for them to impede, frustrate or delay a coroner’s investigation.
“Successive governments were too slow to respond to the risks posed by social media and the result was the flood of inherently preventable harm that we know has cost young lives.”
To read Mr Russell’s full response to the speech, visit www.shorturl.at/lg2F4
Photo credit: Molly Rose Foundation
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