"Addressing the case publicly for the first time, Bill Ready - who became Pinterest's boss in 2022 - said he thought about her "every day" and learning the lessons of her death "guides our work". "As a parent of a young daughter, I can't imagine the pain Molly's family feels," he told the BBC. Pinterest has previously acknowledged the platform was not safe at the time of Molly's death. A hearing in 2022 was told that when she first used the platform she was exposed to a wide variety of content but in the months before she took her life that content was much more focussed on depression, self-harm and suicide."
"Mr Ready told the BBC the platform had since "made significant strides" in terms of providing "age-appropriate, safe experiences, especially for young users." He highlighted how it had made accounts for under-16s fully private, and private by default for under-18s, meaning strangers cannot contact children directly - though he admitted Pinterest was still "by no means perfect." Since Molly's death there has been a nationwide debate about the duty of care tech companies owe children, with calls for tighter regulation of social media. The government has sought to make children's digital lives safer through the Online Safety Act (OSA). Critics say it does not go far enough but some tech firms have complained it puts unfair restrictions on them."
Molly Russell, aged 14, took her own life in 2017 after viewing self-harm content online on sites including Pinterest. A coroner ruled that the material she encountered contributed "in a more than minimal way" to her death. Pinterest's CEO Bill Ready said he thinks about her every day and that learning the lessons of her death guides the company's work. Pinterest made accounts for under-16s fully private and private-by-default for under-18s, and said it has worked to provide age-appropriate, safer experiences. The case intensified debate over tech companies' duty of care and spurred the Online Safety Act.
Read at www.bbc.com
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