Molly Russell's father accuses government of 'watering down' online safety bill

The government is revising its online safety bill to force tech giants to improve child protection, but it has been criticized for removing the requirement for companies to remove legal but harmful content

Molly Russell was just 14 when she died in 2017 (

Image: PA)

Molly Russell's father has accused the government of 'watering down' a legal crackdown on harmful online content.

Ian Russell, whose 14-year-old daughter took her own life after seeing self-harming posts, said it was "very hard to understand" why social media companies wouldn't be forced to remove posts. "legal but harmful" content.

The government is revising its online safety bill to force tech giants to improve child protection.

But ministers have dropped plans to ban the availability of material which is not illegal but could be deemed harmful after pressure from Tory MPs and campaigners.

Former Conservative Tech Minister Lord Bethell called the legislation “weak, weak, weak”.

Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan insisted nothing was watered down - and said content seen by Molly would not be available under the new laws.

Ian Russell, father of Molly Russell, speaks to the media outside Barnet Coroners Court, north London, after the inquest into her death (

Picture:

PENNSYLVANIA)

Ms Donelan decided to revise the bill when she was appointed in September, with new amendments added today.

It previously had a section that required "the most important and risky platforms" such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to tackle certain legal but harmful content that adults have access to.

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This would have meant that tech giants had to prevent people from being exposed to content such as posts about self-harm and eating disorders.

Instead, companies are now being asked to introduce a system that...