Concerns raised 7 Lack of separation between adult and child platform areas View source Use of algorithms to provide content together with adverts View source Lack of parental, guardian or carer access to material viewed by a child View source Lack of age verification at online platform sign-up View source Lack of parental, guardian or carer control over material viewed by a child View source Failure to control online content so that it is age specific View source Failure to separately link a child's account to a parent, guardian or carer's account for monitoring View source See 4 more concerns
Actions described in response An action is something this recipient says it has done, is doing, or plans to do in response to the concern raised. 8
Action
Explore expanding age-verification tools to additional use cases.
View source
Action
Implement Recommendation Guidelines to avoid recommending sensitive or inappropriate content to younger users.
View source
Action
Test new online age-verification methods and work with relevant stakeholders to develop equitable age-assurance solutions.
View source
Action
Expand age-gating to restrict teenagers’ access to additional categories of content.
View source
Action
Improve age-estimation technology and deploy it in additional use cases to tailor teenagers’ experiences and restrict suspicious adult interactions.
View source
Action
Introduce Sensitive Content Control with more restrictive default settings and limited options for teenagers.
View source
Action
Launch and expand Family Centre parental supervision tools, including account, connection, privacy, time-limit, and scheduled-break controls.
View source
Action
Require additional age verification using video selfies or identification documents when users change their stated age from under 18 to over 18.
View source See 5 more actions
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AI-generated summary
Molly Rose Russell · Prevention of Future Deaths report
This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.
Report summary
Molly Rose Russell, aged 14, was found having hanged herself on 21 November 2017. The report describes her depression and exposure to online content involving self-harm, suicide and other negative material, which was likely to have negatively affected her mental health and contributed to her death. Principal concerns included the lack of age verification, separation between adult and child users, age-specific content controls, algorithmic content provision and parental access or monitoring.
Read the report on judiciary.uk
× Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation Lack of separation between adult and child platform areas
Wider context from the report “1. There was no separation between adult and child parts of the platforms or separate platforms for children and adults .
” Open source report × Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation Use of algorithms to provide content together with adverts
Wider context from the report “4. That algorithms were used to provide content together with adverts .
” Open source report × Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation Lack of parental, guardian or carer access to material viewed by a child
Wider context from the report “5. That the parent, guardian or carer did not have access , to the material being viewed or any control over that material.
” Open source report × Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation Lack of age verification at online platform sign-up
Wider context from the report “2. There was no age verification when signing up to the on-line platform .
” Open source report × Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation Lack of parental, guardian or carer control over material viewed by a child
Wider context from the report “5. That the parent, guardian or carer did not have access, to the material being viewed or any control over that material .
” Open source report × Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation Failure to control online content so that it is age specific
Wider context from the report “3. That the content was not controlled so as to be age specific .
” Open source report × Source evidence
How this individual concern was interpreted PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below. The report was sent to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited; that does not assign responsibility.
PFD Monitor interpretation Failure to separately link a child's account to a parent, guardian or carer's account for monitoring
Wider context from the report “6. That the child's account was not capable of being separately linked to the parent, guardian or carer's account for monitoring .
” Open source report
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Explore expanding age-verification tools to additional use cases.
Verbatim wording from the response “d. Meta continues to work to develop accessible, privacy-protective and technology-driven age assurance solutions. This year, we began partnering with online age-verification specialist Yoti to bring new age verification tools to Instagram. Now, when someone attempts to edit their date of birth from under the age of 18 to over, we require them to verify their age by selecting either to: (i) provide a video “selfie”, with Yoti’s face-based age prediction technology then predicting their age; or (ii) upload their identification documents. We are continuing to explore expanding these tools to new use cases.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Implement Recommendation Guidelines to avoid recommending sensitive or inappropriate content to younger users.
Verbatim wording from the response “5. Providing a safe, positive and inclusive environment for all of the people who use our apps is of paramount importance. We design our policies and services, including our Community Standards and Community Guidelines (hereafter our “Content Policies”) which define what content is and is not permitted on our platforms, with our youngest users in mind. These policies seek to balance freedom of expression alongside other important values, such as safety, privacy and dignity. We work hard to enforce our Content Policies and use a combination of ever-advancing technology, user reports and human reviewers to detect and remove content that violates them.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Test new online age-verification methods and work with relevant stakeholders to develop equitable age-assurance solutions.
Verbatim wording from the response “9. Understanding people's age online remains a complex, industry-wide challenge that requires thoughtful solutions to appropriately balance privacy, effectiveness, and fairness. Many people, particularly teenagers and people from underserved communities, do not have access to formal identification. As an industry, we have to explore novel and equitable ways to approach the dilemma of verifying age online that are not reliant on a form of identification. We have recently been testing new methods to verify age online and we are committed to continuing to work with governments, regulators, experts and others in our industry to develop clear and equitable solutions and guidance for age assurance online.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Expand age-gating to restrict teenagers’ access to additional categories of content.
Verbatim wording from the response “c. We already work to limit the ability for users under the age of 18 to view certain categories of content, for example diet products, alcohol, and tobacco (this is called “age-gating”), and we are currently looking at expanding the types of content that we are able to age-gate.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Improve age-estimation technology and deploy it in additional use cases to tailor teenagers’ experiences and restrict suspicious adult interactions.
Verbatim wording from the response “c. We have invested heavily in artificial intelligence models to help us estimate age. We use this technology to help us identify whether someone is an adult or a teenager and work to tailor their experience accordingly, for example, by restricting teenagers' interaction with potentially suspicious adults (as explained above). We are working to improve the accuracy of this technology and to deploy it in additional use cases as part of our ongoing efforts to provide our users with an age appropriate experience.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Introduce Sensitive Content Control with more restrictive default settings and limited options for teenagers.
Verbatim wording from the response “b. We have introduced the “Sensitive Content Control”, which applies to all surfaces on Instagram where content or accounts are recommended.³ As set out in our Recommendation Guidelines, we work to avoid recommending certain types of content to people. As part of this, the Sensitive Content Control seeks to provide users with some degree of choice over how much non-violating (i.e. does not violate our Content Policies) but potentially sensitive content is displayed to them on these surfaces. The Sensitive Content Control has only two options for teenagers: “Standard” and “Less”. Whereas users aged 18 and over can select to see “More”, we do not allow teenagers to access the less restrictive sensitivity settings. Additionally, teenagers under the age of 16 are defaulted into the “Less” option when signing up to Instagram.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Launch and expand Family Centre parental supervision tools, including account, connection, privacy, time-limit, and scheduled-break controls.
Verbatim wording from the response “18. Meta has accordingly implemented wide-ranging parental tools and resources, including tools which allow parents and guardians to supervise their teenager’s use of Instagram in-app, in addition to monitoring in person or at a device level. In 2022, Meta launched the Family Centre, a centralised place where parents can access supervision tools and information resources from leading experts. Through the Family Centre, once both the parent and teenager have accepted the supervision tools, parents can view the accounts that their teenager follows and the accounts that follow their teenager on Instagram, see the amount of time that their teenager spends on Instagram, set daily time limits on their teenager’s Instagram use, and schedule breaks for specific times of day or night when they do not want their teenager to use Instagram.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Source evidence
How this respondent action was interpreted
PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the published response wording shown below.
PFD Monitor interpretation Require additional age verification using video selfies or identification documents when users change their stated age from under 18 to over 18.
Verbatim wording from the response “d. Meta continues to work to develop accessible, privacy-protective and technology-driven age assurance solutions. This year, we began partnering with online age-verification specialist Yoti to bring new age verification tools to Instagram. Now, when someone attempts to edit their date of birth from under the age of 18 to over, we require them to verify their age by selecting either to: (i) provide a video “selfie”, with Yoti’s face-based age prediction technology then predicting their age; or (ii) upload their identification documents. We are continuing to explore expanding these tools to new use cases.” Source location Response from META
Open published response
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Request correction
Addressed to Meta Platforms, Inc., now represented here by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited.
Information checked against published PFD reports and official responses · Data reviewed 7 Sep 2026 · About data quality and limitations