The digital trail that sheds light on the final months of Molly Russell's life However, Sky News' data and forensics unit found that while these blocks have been made and some content removed, the autofill device or misspellings can still lead users to some content, which Molly viewed this was shown to her inquest but is too distressing to publish here. On Instagram, many of the hashtags Molly searched for have now been blocked. The coroner at her inquest ruled the content she had viewed "romanticised" self-harm, "normalised" her depression, and that some content "discouraged" the teenager from seeking "help" - ultimately contributing to her death.ĭavine wants to highlight that Molly was not an isolated case, and that young people being drawn into looking at dark content on social media is a huge and damaging issue. Molly's family would later learn that alone in her room, social media algorithms had been feeding her a weight of disturbing content. The coroner's ruling: How content 'romanticised' self-harm Image: Molly Russell (left) and Davine Lee. we were just trying to get through each day." "To attend a funeral at that age for someone who is a friend. "And that's a sound I can't forget, the sound of that many children just in such emotion. Recalling the horrific day that her school friends were told what had happened, she remembers the teachers ushering them all into a room. It was like an instant sense of doubt, like, 'no, Molly wouldn't'. either depression or poor mental health can hide almost in plain sight in that sense," says Davine.ĭavine had no idea that Molly was suffering. she was still doing the things she loved. " had just been given like one of the lead roles for the show we were doing that year. They starred together in school productions of Les Miserables and Beauty And The Beast. Molly and Davine had been friends since they started secondary school together and shared a love of singing and musicals. 'Poor mental health can hide almost in plain sight' "I want people to know that what happened to Molly isn't an isolated event and the content that she was being pushed, it still exists." "It was shocking to see that it was that bad," says Davine, referring to the graphic material that was shown at Molly's inquest. Reliving that time, she hopes, might prompt anyone struggling to see how much they would be missed. Now 20 and at university, she says she was moved to speak publicly for the first time to highlight the importance of bringing the Online Safety Bill back before parliament. This is Davine's first media interview, speaking exclusively to Sky News. I obviously can't give it to her but it feels in some way like I can still hold on to her through that." That present still sits in my room, I'm just really not sure what to do with it. "I've still got her birthday present from 2017 - it would have been her 15th birthday, and of course she never made it to that birthday. it's something we won't ever be able to forget or entirely move on from. "To have to lose a friend at that age, it's scarring," Davine quietly explains. In a landmark ruling at an inquest in September, a coroner ruled she died not from suicide, but from "an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content".ĭealing with the death of a friend in this way, especially at such a young age, is a particularly complex form of grief to process. It later emerged she had viewed masses of content related to suicide, depression and anxiety online. Molly Russell, a seemingly happy teenager from Harrow, northwest London, was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017, just a day after rehearsing with Davine for a show she had been picked to play a lead role in.
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