The teenager, from Harrow in north-west London, took her own life in November 2017 after viewing content which included posts relating to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide. Coroner Andrew Walker said he had not forgotten that “at the heart of every inquest is a grieving family”, as legal issues dominated the first day of the hearing, which takes place almost five years after Molly’s death. Molly’s father Ian Russell, who has become a prominent campaigner to protect children from harmful content on social media, was due to give a pen portrait of Molly’s life on the day the inquest opened. Executives from Instagram and Pinterest, two platforms Molly interacted with before her death, are set to testify in the hearing, which could last two weeks. However, proceedings at North London coroner’s court in Barnet were delayed as legal representatives for the Russell family, the owner of Instagram, Meta, Pinterest and the media discussed access to evidence with the coroner. Walker said there must be “adequate safeguards” for the authors of the publications used as evidence, whose identities have been redacted but may be identifiable from material published in the media. Walker raised concerns that the publication of some of the social media posts accessed by the teenager before her death could have a negative effect on their original author. “It’s a matter of making sure that if there’s material that might affect the author … we deal with it in a sensitive way,” he said. Referring to the delays at the end of the day’s hearing, the coroner said: “It is very difficult for the family in inquests like this where there are many legal issues to discuss. “At the heart of any investigation is a grieving family and that’s something I haven’t forgotten despite all the work that’s been done by the attorney today to try to move this case forward.” The investigation has already been delayed in the past due to issues such as requests from Instagram owner Meta to redact content to protect users’ privacy.
