Online self-harm content will be made illegal five years after the death of teenager Molly Russell

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Online content that encourages self-harm will be criminalized, the government has announced five years after the death of teenager Molly Russell.

Secretary to Culture Michelle Donelan has announced that the Online Safety Bill will be updated to make it illegal to incite self-harm through online posts, images and videos.

This change to the law would align content about self-harm with content that encourages suicide - which is already illegal.

The amendment to the legislation was influenced by the case of 14-year-old Molly , the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.

The teenager, from Harrow, north-west London, has taken her own life in November 2017 after viewing social media content related to depression, self-harm and suicide on Instagram and Pinterest.

Chief Coroner Andrew Walker had concluded that she "died of an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of the ent online sequel" which "should not have been available for a child to see".

Molly Russell as a young child

(PA Media)

In October, he posted to Meta, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat and the UK government a Preventing Future Deaths (PFD) report which gives recipients a duty to respond within 56 days detailing their plan of action, or an explanation if no action will be taken on their part.

Following the coroner's report, Molly's father, Ian Russell, called on social media companies to "think long and hard about whether their platforms are youth-friendly".

He added that measures were needed to "curb the algorithmic amplification of destructive and extremely dangerous content or not remove it quickly".

In December, the Online Safety Bill is due back in parliament. The self-harm measure would be included in amendments to the bill, but DCMS could not say when they would be tabled.

With the introduction of updates regarding incitement to self-harm, social media platforms will be required to remove this content, and anyone found guilty of sending such communications will be subject to prosecution.