Health Minister orders blitz on ‘appalling’ internet suicide images
HEALTH Secretary Matt Hancock today ordered web giants to crack down on suicide and self- harm images online or face new laws to stop vulnerable children being bombarded with the horrific material.
He said it was ‘ appalling’ how easy it still was to access such harmful content online.
But the Minister said it was now ‘time for internet and social media providers to step up and purge this content once and for all’.
His intervention comes just days after the father of a 14-year-old who killed herself after viewing online images glorifying suicide called on social media firms to clean up their act.
Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly committed suicide in November 2017, even accused Instagram of helping to kill her.
In a letter to web giants Facebook (which owns Instagram), Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Apple and Google, father-of-three Mr Hancock spoke of his horror as a parent at Molly’s death and signalled he was moved to intervene by Mr Russell’s remarks.
Mr Hancock wrote: ‘Molly was just two years older than my own daughter is now and I feel desperately concerned to ensure young people are protected.
‘The grief Molly’s parents feel is something no one should have to experience. Every suicide is a preventable death, including Molly’s.’
And he paid tribute to Mr Russell, writing: ‘I was inspired by the brav- ery of Molly’s father, who spoke out about the role of social media in this tragedy.’
Noting that suicide was now the leading cause of death for young people under 20, he said: ‘As Health Secretary, I am particularly concerned about content that leads to self-harm and promotes suicide.’
The Government was developing proposals to ‘ address all online harms’ – including suicidal and selfharm content – and to work with social media providers, he said. Setting out his aim to make the UK ‘the safest place to be online for everyone’, he warned service providers: ‘Let me be clear, we will introduce new legislation where needed.’
Mr Hancock added: ‘ Research shows that people who are feeling suicidal use the internet to search for suicide methods. Websites provide graphic details and information on how to take your own life. This cannot be right. Where this content breaches the policies of internet and social media providers, it must be removed.’
Molly Russell died after being s ucked i nt o what her f at her described as a ‘digital club’ on the photo- sharing site. On it, users shared material focusing on depression, self-harm and suicide.
In a statement last week, Instagram said it ‘does not allow content that promotes or glorifies selfharm or suicide and will remove content of this kind’.