The headteacher at Molly Russell’s school has told her inquest social media is “almost impossible to keep track of” and staff had been warning students of its dangers “for a long time”.
Sue Maguire told the hearing at North London Coroner’s Court that the death of 14-year-old Molly in November 2017 had come as a “complete and terrible shock”.
She was found dead in her bedroom in Harrow after viewing online content linked to self-harm, depression and anxiety.
Asked about her students’ relationship with social media, Ms Maguire said: “Our experience of young people is that social media plays a huge, dominant role in their lives and it causes no end of issues.
“But we don’t present a stance that they should not use it – but it presents challenges to schools that we simply didn’t have 10 years ago or 15 years ago.
“There’s a level where I want to say it’s almost impossible to keep track of social media, but we have to try and we have to respond to the information as we receive it.”
When asked whether she was aware of the type of content Molly had engaged with, deputy headteacher Rebecca Cozens replied: “I don’t think at that time an awareness of the depth of it and how quickly it would snowball… and the intensity then, when you’re going down that rabbit hole it is a deep one.”
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Molly’s father Ian has been campaigning for better protections from online harm since his daughter’s death.
Executives from Instagram’s parent company Meta and Pinterest are attending the inquest in person.
Meta’s Elizabeth Lagone told a previous hearing posts Molly viewed, which her family argues “encouraged” suicide, were safe when she viewed them.
But Pinterest executive Judson Hoffman said content viewed on his website was “not safe” at the time.
A child psychiatrist has also told the inquest the content he viewed as evidence left him “unable to sleep well for a few weeks”.
Coroner Andrew Walker is expected to conclude the inquest by the end of this week.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email [email protected]. Alternatively, letters can be mailed to: Freepost SAMARITANS LETTERS.
