Instagram Vows To Remove All Graphic Self-Harm Images From Site (bbc.com)

All graphic images of self-harm will be removed from Instagram, the head of the social media platform has told the BBC. From a report: The move comes after the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017, said Instagram had "helped kill" his daughter. Molly's family found she had been viewing graphic images of self-harm on the site prior to her death. Adam Mosseri said Instagram was trying to balance "the need to act now and the need to act responsibly". He added the site was "not where we need to be on the issues of self-harm and suicide". When asked by the BBC's Angus Crawford when the images would be removed, Mr Mosseri replied: "As quickly as we can, responsibly." Molly's father Ian Russell welcomed Instagram's commitment and said he hoped they would act swiftly to implement their plans.

Comments

If you have kids...

[sycodon]

...keep them off social media.

Wrong way round?

[jythie]

Hrm.

The bulk of the cutters and other-self harm people I've known over the years did so, in part, out of a need for agency and control over their own body. Perhaps I am being unfair, but every time I hear a parent complain about 'my kids learned cutting from XYZ and then kill themselves', I wonder just how abusive the parent was and now they are trying to blame someone else.

Re:Umm, yeah

[Ol Olsoc]

One of the most basic, and effective, techniques of persuasion is demonstrating that others have done it.

When someone is contemplating suicide, being exposed to stories of people committing suicide will strengthen their resolve to do so. You sound like someone who should be educated enough to know this.

So skimming through such images probably did not make her depressed, but it probably did help push her over the edge.

I have no doubt she was depressed. It is rather unfortunate that her parents, who presumably see her every day, seemed to not notice the problem.

This is just another version of the "Helter Skelter" defense, or Judas Priest being sued because two teenagers https://www.nytimes.com/1990/0... or akid killing himeself, and aomehow Ozzy Ozbourne was responsible. https://www.history.com/this-d... .

Yes, I am educated. But Judas Priest, or Ozzy Ozbourne, or Instagram didn't cause those people to commit suicide, and the Beatles didn't make Charles Manson and his followers kill Sharon Tate and the others. They didn't, even if the people looked at images or listened to music.

I am educated enough to understand that people in grieving might very often look for some blame target, especially if they might have had something to do with the original problem or were in denial of it.

People commit suicide without looking at images on Instagram, or listen to Judas Priest or Black Sabbath music. Why do they do this? Often because they are depressed. No need for those three bogeymen.

I might give the concept a little more credence if normal person was driven to suicide. But that's almost certainly never going to be shown.

Want a better idea? How about in the interests of preventing more suicides in young teens, the parents interview with psychologists to see what they might have missed, or ignored, or just wrote off to "a phase". Then compiling everything to see what they might make sense of. One thing is for certain. These people had a daughter with a mental illness, a daughter who was very likely to kill herself even is she never looked at instagram. I graduated high school long before the internet, and we had some folks who committed suicide. Blaming outside things for internal family issues will seldom solve anything. And its so much better if parents can quietly get their troubled offspring good treatment than going through official channels. And we do want less teenagers to be killing themselves, wouldn't you agree?