With the Safe Internet Day just happening days ago, the push for sensitizing content that is put out there is on the rise as the balance between not limiting expression and maintaining standards being a hurdle in itself.
Social media platforms, Instagram, in particular, is making progress on this. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said the company needs to do more to keep the most vulnerable people who use the platform safe. Instagram will not allow any graphic images of self-harm on its platform following pressure from parents of suicide victims.
Mosseri: “We have not been as focused as we should have been on the effects of graphic imagery of anyone looking at content.”
‘#Instagram to ban all graphic self-harm images from platform ‘ | via @telegraph https://t.co/Kydv7TgYEq— Talin Dilsizyan (@TalinPro) February 7, 2019
The move comes after a demand that social media companies “purge” their platforms of content that promotes self-harm and suicide, made by the family of 14-year-old Molly Russell.
Molly’s family discovered she had been viewing graphic images of self-harm on the platform before taking her own life. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in a blog post on Thursday that “nothing is more important to us than the safety of people in our community”. After a comprehensive review with global experts and academics on youth, mental health, and suicide prevention, the company has decided to clamp down on graphic images of self-harm.