Our Story
Working at the intersect of suicide prevention, online safety and tech accountability we exist to end preventable harm online and give young people the tools to live long and stay strong. Here you can find out more about our work and the reason we campaign for stronger online safety regulation and to ensure young people have the support they need to thrive.
“There was a real striving in Molly for right and for justice. If she felt someone was out of order, it was like a switch – she would say, ‘stop it, that’s not right!’ She’s not here to speak out today, so we have to do this for her.” – Ian Russell, Molly’s dad.
Molly was bright, creative and full of kindness.
Aged 14, Molly loved musical theatre and had a tight knit friendship group. “Adorable” in the words of her dad, Molly’s friends describe her as a pure soul in her likes and dislikes. In 2017, her life ended after being exposed to a torrent of harmful content online.
Like most other teenagers, Molly used social media. However, amongst the celebrities and pop stars in her feeds was a dark vein of algorithmically recommended suicide, self-harm and depression material that took her down a rabbit hole of despair.
Her family didn’t know this at the time. However, as the extent to which social media harmed Molly emerged, Molly’s dad Ian was clear: “Instagram helped kill my daughter.”
Five years later, a coroner determined that harmful online content had directly played a role in Molly’s death, the first time such a ruling had been made.
We learnt that Molly had been shown over 2,000 harmful posts on Instagram alone in the six months before she died. There was just 12 days in that period when Molly didn’t see content that was harmful to her.
She was subjected to a trail of damaging and dangerous content on social media sites that had utterly failed to address the risks they posed to children.
At Molly’s inquest the coroner concluded that social media content had contributed “more than minimally to her death”. Molly “died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.
Molly’s inquest sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley – the home of Big Tech.
Some of the content Molly saw was played to the court. It was too disturbing for news outlets to broadcast. It was algorithmically driven at Molly, monetising her misery.
Molly couldn’t escape from this content because of the way social media is designed: product choices that continued to feed her with depressive content, and an endless stream of recommended posts that promoted suicide and self-harm, fuelling her despair.
Molly’s death was preventable, but sadly her story is far from exceptional. Here in the UK, one young person continues to die from suicide every week where technology plays a role.
Molly’s life is the reason Molly Rose Foundation exists.
For Molly, and every child, our mission is to ensure that every young person can live long and stay strong. We won’t rest until preventable harm becomes a thing of the past.
Live Long, Stay Strong – words written in Molly’s notebook in the months before she died. Today, it is the cornerstone of our mission, and the reason that Molly Rose Foundation exists.
We work at the intersect of suicide prevention, online safety, and tech accountability to demand a safer online world and move beyond the preventable harm that blights childhoods and costs young lives.
Ours is an urgent but hopeful mission. We can build a better online world and champion our young people, giving them the skills and support they need to thrive.
Online harm is not inevitable. The business models and deliberate design choices of Big Tech put children at risk, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
That’s why we campaign for strong and effective laws and regulation. We know that a better online world is possible and we’ll keep on pushing until every child can be safe and fulfilled online.
At the heart of everything we do is evidence and lived experience. By conducting research, we highlight how preventable online harm continues to exist and strive for stronger regulation to keep children safe. By working with lived experience voices, we show the impact online harm has on families and help empower them to drive change.
We call out tech companies when their algorithms monetise misery, and challenge Government and regulators when they prioritise the needs of Big Tech over children’s safety.
Our vision is for an online world that is made safe by design, and for social media, gaming and AI products that promote safety and wellbeing and not harm young people.
We are also on the frontline with education and support for families.
We aim to equip young people with skills that last a lifetime. We work directly with educators to deliver resources that make mental health and digital literacy practical and accessible. This includes supporting young people to spot when something might be harmful to their wellbeing, understanding how platform design can contribute towards this and knowing where to find help.
Our work ensures that digital literacy is not abstract but rooted in lived experience, peer conversations, and real-world scenarios. By embedding this in classrooms, we aim to normalise talking about mental health and online harm, reduce stigma, and empower young people to take proactive steps when they feel at risk.
We challenge Government to go further, looking to embed mental health, suicide prevention and digital literacy across the curriculum to ensure young people have the tools they need to thrive.
Beyond the classroom, we support parents to have impactful conversations with their children about what they are seeing online, the impact of addictive design and safe avenues for support.
The impact is visible when a child can recognise harm early, when a teacher feels confident in guiding a conversation, and when a parent can confidently support their child to navigate online experiences safely. Education complements legislative reform: it empowers individuals at the same time as we push for systems change.
Molly Rose Foundation recognises that everyone has a role to play to prevent suicide and promote better mental health in young people. That’s why we train those working with children with vital skills in suicide prevention and Mental Health First Aid. We’ve distributed almost 300,000 help cards that signpost young people to trusted sources of help and support.
Together we can end preventable online harm. With your help, we can ensure every young person can live long and stay strong.
We are dedicated to ensuring that children and young people are protected from online harm to bring an end to preventable deaths by suicide where technology plays a role.
We influence policy makers, raise the voice of lived experience and deliver education and support to reduce preventable suicide and address online harm.
At the heart of Molly Rose Foundation is our team of experts in the sector who are led by our organisational values to drive forward our mission.
