Below is text from an important Linked In post from Jake Dubbins, the Co-Founder and Co-Chair at the Conscious Advertising Network.
I was there too and it was both inspirational and horrific at the same time. My hope is that this film (in cinemas and Ch4 in March) will have a similar impact to Adolescence….. but that this time we see some action as well as discussion (Ofcom are you listening?). As we said in the session I led at the Advertising: Who Cares? event on October 2025, it’s time for advertisers to stand up and be counted, to ask questions of their agencies and to INSIST that action is taken to audit exactly where their ads are appearing.
Pervasive by Design report from Molly Rose Foundation can be downloaded here: https://mollyrosefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/proof3_PervasivebyDesign.pdf
“Last night I had the honour of being involved in one of the most emotional events of my life. A preview screening of the documentary ‘Molly vs the Machines’ was shown to an audience of advertisers in London.
It tells the story of Molly Russell, a 14 year old girl, who took her own life in 2017. The coroner’s report in 2022 stated that “Molly Rose Russell died from an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.
In 2025 the Molly Rose Foundation released a report which revealed that personalised recommender systems on TikTok and Instagram continue to suggest ‘overwhelming volumes of suicide, self harm and intense depression content to teens.’ 1 in 10 of these videos had ads adjacent to them. They were being monetised.
The attention economy does not care what content is shown to kids on these platforms. It is, as was powerfully shown in the film, ‘topic agnostic’. This means that ‘legal but harmful’ content can be recommended to kids in their bedrooms so money can be made from advertising. It means platforms like Meta, catching ‘less bad stuff.’
It is beyond time Government regulated and advertisers stepped up.The government must step in to clean up the most opaque supply chain in the world. The trillion dollar advertising industry. Advertisers must know exactly what they are advertising against. At impression level. Posts, shares, videos, shorts, reels, hashtags, channels, groups, creator content, AI search summaries, responses and content.
I want to thank the panellists Adele Zeynep Walton, director Marc Silver, Lameya Chaudhury and host, Alex Holmes OBE. Plus brilliant speaker Cosima Wiltshire.
But most of all I want to thank Molly’s dad, Ian Russell. Your bravery, grace and generosity is an absolute inspiration.
The words in the film that hit the hardest was when you said ‘Thank you Molly. Thank you for being my daughter.’
Thank you. I truly hope this film drives the change that is so desperately needed.”