Prince William, the Prince of Wales, has said that online safety for children “needs to be a prerequisite.” His statement comes after a coroner ruled social media contributed to the death of Molly Russell in 2017.
Senior coroner Andrew Walker said material viewed by the teenager on sites including Instagram and Pinterest were “not safe” and “should not have been available for a 14-year-old child to see.” Prince William took to Twitter on Thursday evening, writing that “no parent should ever have to endure” what Molly’s parents have gone through.
He went on: “They have been so incredibly brave. Online safety for our children and young people needs to be a prerequisite, not an afterthought.” In November 2019, Prince William met with Molly’s father Ian Russell when he asked him: “Do you think companies like Instagram are doing enough?” Mr Russel responded: “My thoughts on Instagram are, we're grateful that they're doing something but I think they're only really inching along the road, and they need to do a lot more.” Mr Russell has since also disclosed that William had been in touch with the family to offer his support.
As the inquest into Molly's death concluded, coroner Andrew Walker determined that it would not be "safe" to rule Molly’s cause of death as suicide.
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