The father of Molly Russell says his daughter was “led towards her death” by social media platforms in a new documentary exploring the events leading up to her suicide.
The 14-year-old schoolgirl from Harrow, London, died in November 2017 after experiencing depression and viewing harmful online content.
Her father, Ian Russell, has since campaigned for improved online safety and established the Molly Rose Foundation in her memory.
The documentary Molly vs THE MACHINES examines Mr Russell’s campaign for safer online spaces, as well as the economic and social impact of AI and big tech on modern life.
In the film’s opening, Mr Russell reflects on his family life before Molly’s death, saying: “Our life before Molly died was very ordinary, very normal, absolutely nothing special… If it could happen to our family, then it could happen to anybody.”
Co-written by Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff and directed by Marc Silver, the film explores how Molly’s life and death were shaped by algorithms emerging from Silicon Valley’s tech ecosystem.
In the film, Mr Russell recalls the night of November 20 when his family of five watched television together, before waking the next morning to his wife discovering Molly’s body in her bedroom.
“When you say goodnight to your kid and you close the door and they’re safely in their bedroom and you turn the lights out and you’ve made sure the front door of your house is locked, you’ve taken steps as you do every night, without thinking, to protect them,” said Mr Russell.
“And what I wasn’t sufficiently aware of, I don’t think many parents are, is that if that child has a smartphone with them, there’s a window which allows them to connect with the outside world and decisions about what was suitable and not suitable for a 13 or 14-year-old to see were being made remotely in Silicon Valley, almost experimentally.”
Mr Russell said his youngest daughter should have been allowed to fight her own battles without interference from outside sources.
“She should have been allowed to choose who she invited to help her fight those battles,” he said.
“Instead, there was no discouragement to stop self harming, no discouragement to stop thinking about suicide.
“In fact, quite the opposite. There was encouragement to keep belonging to the club that said: ‘Yeah, you are worthless. It is painful. What is the point of your life?
“‘Yeah, there is really only one way out, and here are some ways of doing it.’
“That artificial world was something that got inside of her head and found a way to connect to her so it separated her from the offline world, dragged her into this machine world that she was experiencing, and led her towards her death.”
Mr Russell said his life was fractured into two pieces after losing Molly.
“Just seeing poor Molly’s body, there’s that sense of denial kicks in which I think is a survival instinct. You can’t comprehend everything that’s there in front of you,” he said.
“I remember instantly understanding that a bit of me had died with her. That life stopped and started at that point. That old life and the new life there was of course a connection and I’m still me, but my life is not in one piece. It’s fractured into two and I knew that instantly.”
The film was made in close collaboration with Molly’s family and friends and includes interviews with whistleblowers and reconstructions of moments from Molly’s inquest.
A Meta spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with Molly’s friends and family. We know parents and teens want a safe experience online, which is why we’ve spent over a decade working with UK experts, parents, and charities to build protections for teens into our platforms.
“This includes defaulting all teens under 18 into private accounts, restricting who can message them and the content they see, while giving parents the option to supervise their teen’s account.”
Molly vs THE MACHINES is in UK cinemas on Sunday March 1 and will air on Channel 4 on Thursday March 5.
