Bereaved families and survivors of a pro-suicide online forum are demanding that a public inquiry be held into government inaction over such websites and the harm they have caused.
The Molly Rose Foundation published a report on 17 October highlighting what it described as “multiple missed opportunities” by government departments to take effective action against such forums.1
The foundation was set up by family and friends of 14 year old Molly Russell after her death in 20172 to focus on suicide prevention, particularly in people under 25. It carried out a systematic review of 47 prevention of future death reports where deaths were directly connected to a poisonous substance and/or a pro-suicide forum.
The resulting report said that coroners had raised concerns over further deaths from people accessing suicide forums at least 65 times since 2019, sending these to three government departments. These were the Department of Health and Social Care, the Home Office, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology/Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
However, despite these concerns—which included warnings about a poisonous substance that one forum promoted—the report said that there had been …
