Father of teen whose death was linked to social media has ‘lost faith’ in Ofcom

Ian Russell outside the inquest into the death of his daughter in 2022. The coroner concluded that 14-year-old Molly Russell died after suffering from the ‘negative effects of online content’. Photograph: Joshua Bratt/PA

The father of Molly Russell, a British teenager who killed herself after viewing harmful online content, has called for a change in leadership at the UK’s communications watchdog after losing faith in its ability to make the internet safer for children.

Ian Russell, whose 14 year-old daughter took her own life in 2017, said Ofcom had “repeatedly” demonstrated that it does not grasp the urgency of keeping under-18s safe online and was failing to implement new digital laws forcefully.