Father of tragic teenager Molly Russell backs data sharing calls on social media

The father of a teenage girl who took her own life after watching graphic self-harm and suicide material on Instagram is backing a campaign to make social media giants hand over their data to mental health researchers.

Father of tragic teenager Molly Russell backs social media data calls

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme Ian Russell, said the types of images viewed by his 14-year-old daughter Molly included ones that suggest depression "will inevitably lead to suicide" and "normalise a dark, bleak world" which children "get sucked into".

Molly died just days before her birthday in 2017 after viewing the material.

Now, leading UK psychiatrists say they will never understand the risks and benefits of social media use on children's mental health unless companies hand over their data to researchers.

Tech companies must be made to share data and pay a tax to fund important research, they say in a report. There is growing evidence internet use can harm mental health but research is still lacking, it adds.

But a civil rights group said children should not be treated "like lab rats".

An independent regulator for online safety is planned by the government.

The report, by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, calls on the regulator to require social-media companies to share data on how children and young people are using the likes of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - not just how much time they spend online.

The data collected would be anonymous, the report says.

He said without research using data from social media companies, "we will never know how content can lead our children and young people to self-harm or, in the most tragic cases, take their own lives".

There can be many positives to children using technology, such as online support, instant communication with friends and access to information, but screen time can also be potentially harmful to health, psychiatrists say.

For example, online content can be distressing and children can become addicted to screens at the expense of sleep, exercise and family time.

Research was still fragmented but initial evidence of "negative physical, mental health and cognitive associations" required further inter-disciplinary, nationally funded research, the report states.

Most social media platforms say users must be at least 13 years old to have an account, but research has suggested many younger children bypass these restrictions.

Report co-author Dr Bernadka Dubicka, who chairs the child and adolescent faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said she was seeing a growing number of children self-harming and attempting suicide as a result of their use of social media and online discussions.

She said programme research was "hampered" by the lack of access to social media data, leading to "double standards" in how young people are protected online compared with offline.

"It is time for government to step up and take decisive action to hold social media companies to account for escalating harmful content to vulnerable children and young people," she said.

Dr Dubicka also called for a tax on social media companies "that is proportional to their global turnover" to pay for research.

Civil rights group Big Brother Watch said it recognised the importance of research into the impact of social media, but that users must be "empowered to choose what data they give away, who to and for what purposes".

The campaign group's director, Silkie Carlo, said young people should have "autonomy" on social media "without being made to feel like lab rats".

Citing the Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2014, she added: "At a time when data and privacy rights face significant threats online and trust is low, user control should be recognised as a priority."

READ MORE: https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/tech-executives-to-be-held-responsible-for-harmful-content-1-4903001The government has already said it will create an independent regulator for online safety from April, as part of a package of measure to keep UK users safe online, known as the Online Harms White Paper.

The regulator will be able to demand companies write reports outlining how they protect people online, a spokesman said.

The reports will then be made public so that parents and children "can make informed decisions about their internet use", the spokesman added.

There are also plans to introduce a 2% tax rate against the sales large digital companies make in the UK.