By YSABEL GERRARD, TARLETON GILLESPIE: For More Info, Go Here…
IT’S TROUBLING ENOUGH that British teenager Molly Russell sought out images of suicide and self-harm online before she took her own life in 2017. But it was later discovered that these images were also being delivered to her, recommended by her favorite social media platforms. Her Instagram feed was full of them. Even in the months after her death, Pinterest continued to send her automated emails, its algorithms automatically recommending graphic images of self-harm, including a slashed thigh and cartoon of a young girl hanging. Her father has accused Instagram and Pinterest of helping to kill his 14-year-old daughter by allowing these graphic images on their platforms and pushing them into Molly’s feed.
Molly’s father’s distressing discovery has fueled the argument that social media companies like Instagram and Pinterest are exacerbating a “mental health crisis” among young people. Social media may be a factor in the rise of a “suicide generation”: British teens who are committing suicide at twice the rate they were eight years ago.