Before she took her own life at 14, Molly Russell accessed thousands of harmful posts on Instagram and Pinterest. A new documentary recreates the inquest where her father was told the images were safe

Molly Russell was 14 when she took her own life in 2017 after months of viewing content relating to self-harm and suicide on social media. Nearly a decade later, her best friends from school, interviewed for this documentary, have grown into articulate, impressive women in their early 20s. Watching them, you can’t help but be struck all over again by the terrible tragedy of Molly’s death and the loss to her family, who will never see the young woman Molly would be now. Her father, Ian Russell , says life before Molly’s death was absolutely normal; in the years since, he has become a leading campaigner for better online protection for children.

On the night Molly died, Russell says, they sat down together as a family, in front of the TV. Molly’s last message to her friend Nieve was two laughing emojis. She had been feeling depressed, but no one suspected how bad it was. Nor were they aware of the content being fed to Molly by Instagram and Pinterest’s algorithms. In the months before her death she accessed thousands of harmful social media posts. One reads: “Dear me, I hate you. You’re weak. You deserve the pain. You’ll never be good enough. I hope you die.” At the inquest into Molly’s death, Meta’s head of health and wellbeing policy, Elizabeth Lagone , told the court the majority of posts Molly saw were “safe” for children. Nothing to see here.

Add percussive therapy to your post-workout routine with our expert picks, including mini and deep-tissue models. Plus, a brand new frontrunner now in top spot

• The best running shoes, tested

Massage guns are often pitched at the highly active. They can help you warm up for workouts, accelerate recovery and generally keep things loose and injury-free. However, you don’t have to be training for an Ironman triathlon to benefit from a percussive pummelling. A good session can also alleviate the general soreness, stiffness and pain that comes from desk-bound days and the daily grind – all without having to cough up for a spell on a masseuse’s table or be handled by a stranger.

These personal-care power tools use rapid, repetitive pressure and vibrations to penetrate tired muscles, with a selection of heads, variable speeds and even automated routines to tailor treatments towards tight trouble spots. Dozens of massage guns are available from various brands, and you can spend anything from £50 to £500. But not all muscle massage guns are made equal.

Best massage gun overall:
Therabody Theragun Sense 2

Best budget massage gun:
Renpho Active Thermacool 2

Not enough support for freed victims, say aid agencies, with growing numbers sleeping on the streets, unable to travel home without passports or money

Charities and aid workers have called for urgent international government support for victims of south-east Asia’s deadly scam compounds , following a damning report by Amnesty International.

The numbers of survivors of cyberscam “farms” left destitute and abandoned on the city streets of Cambodia and Myanmar is an “international crisis”, according to the research published in January.

Detectives say tools supplied by Palantir were integral to convictions of a criminal gang that stole £800,000

It was fraud on a grand scale. The “Fuck the Police” criminal gang based in Luton and Romania stole £800,000 in more than 3,000 withdrawals from cash machines in dozens of locations throughout 2024.

The police investigation matched the crime in its complexity. When detectives in Bedfordshire seized the suspects’ two dozen smartphones, they were faced with a mountain of potential digital evidence – 1.4 terabytes of information, according to the authorities, connecting co-conspirators across eastern England and the Bacau region of Romania.

Exclusive: NCA’s Alex Murray says he hopes new £115m police AI centre can limit unfairness found in tools

• ‘It’s not Robocop’: UK police embrace AI ‘efficiency’ in complex investigations

A police chief has admitted artificial intelligence used to boost crime fighting will contain bias but pledged to combat the risks.

Labour wants a dramatic expansion of police use of AI within England and Wales, with police chiefs also believing it could help keep law enforcement up to date with new criminal threats.

When the most profound human emotion becomes an automated transaction in an online shop, the techlords have won

The Guardian reported on the arrival of “Fate” and, friends, I laughed. Or maybe I cried.

It’s apparently the first “agentic AI dating app”. An AI personality named “Fate” interviews users, runs data matches on their hopes and dreams, then suggests five potential matches based on the hard data of observable complementary language patterning, “No swiping involved!”.

Anthropic says three Chinese firms used ‘distillation’ technique to extract information from its Claude chatbot

US artificial intelligence company Anthropic said on Monday it had uncovered campaigns by three Chinese AI firms to illicitly extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, in what it described as industrial-scale intellectual property theft. OpenAI leveled similar charges last month.

Anthropic said DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax used a technique known as “distillation” – using outputs from a more powerful AI system to rapidly boost the performance of a less capable one.

Company had suspended account of Tumbler Ridge shooter in June 2025 over ‘furtherance of violent activities’

Canada’s artificial intelligence minister says he has summoned representatives from the technology company OpenAI after the company declined to alert police after suspending the account of a user who became the perpetrator of one of the country’s the worst-ever school shootings .

Evan Solomon says he is “deeply disturbed” by reports the company, which operates the popular ChatGPT chatbot, suspended the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar over the “furtherance of violent activities” in June 2025 but did not reach out to Canadian law enforcement.

This US tech giant should not have been given NHS or Ministry of Defence contracts, writes Stephen Saunders . Plus a letter from Jan Savage

For 100 years, the UK government has led us through existential threats, including two world wars. But instead of resisting the latest threat to democratic accountability, it has welcomed it with open arms: Palantir Technologies ( NHS deal with AI firm Palantir called into question after officials’ concerns revealed, 12 February ).

This polarising US surveillance giant provides data-fusion and AI platforms used by by the US for immigration enforcement and by Israel in the Gaza conflict. Its software amplifies state power through militarised analytics and opaque algorithms.