“We draw lines around content damaging to our community” – Tumblr in talks with the government over self-harm pages
Tumblr has met with the government to improve online safety following Sarah Wilson's suggestion that blogs encouraging self-harm played a role in the death of her daughter.
Tallulah Wilson visited Tumblr pages which promoted self-harm and posted images of harm she had inflicted on herself before taking her own life in October 2012.
Her mother said the 15-year-old had fallen into the “clutches of a toxic digital world”, and suggested that brands should stop advertising on “sites who continue to host inappropriate self-harming and suicide-promoting blogs to stop this poison spreading".
She added that Tumblr and other sites need to “take an active role in policing and swiftly removing unsuitable material”. It was revealed at the inquest that Sarah Wilson had closed down her daughter’s Tumblr account because of the self-harm content being shared.
Tumblr has now said in a statement: "Tumblr is deeply committed to protecting our users' freedom of expression, but we draw lines around a few categories of content we consider damaging to our community, including blogs that encourage self-harm.
"Users are encouraged to report those blogs to abuse@tumblr.com, where our Trust and Safety team can respond to content that violates our policies."
Chaired by culture secretary Ed Vaizey, the meeting with the government looked into the issue of moderation. A follow-up meeting has already been planned to build on this further.
Laura Higgins, from the UK Safer Internet Centre, said: "It was a very positive meeting. It is the start of a process. It's something we're going to be regularly looking at. Hopefully there will be some sharing going forward of the really good practice that was there in the room."
Should this subject affect yourself or any other young person you know, then ChildLine can be contacted on 0800 1111.