Google has denied breaching the Online Safety Act by promoting a suicide forum associated with 164 deaths in the UK, where it is supposed to be banned. The US-based site, whose operators were fined £950,000 by Ofcom, still appears in Google’s search results and can be accessed in the UK via VPN software.
The Molly Rose Foundation, an online safety campaign, raised concerns that a link to the website appears in Google’s search results, allowing users to circumvent the block. Chief executive Andy Burrows told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you search for it by name it will still come up in search results – a clear-cut breach of the act, but on that matter Ofcom has so far declined to take action.”
Google denied breaching the law, stating that Ofcom regulations allow search engines to respond to “navigational” queries. It added that its results prioritise user safety by including a prominent help box with support resources, such as Samaritans, alongside contextual news coverage. Google said it aimed to balance robust safety protections with the principle of ensuring information access, and would implement any formal court orders to restrict access to specific sites.
Ofcom has been urging the site to obey British laws criminalising intentionally encouraging or assisting suicide since last spring. The regulator is preparing a court order to require internet service providers to block UK access to the site if its concerns are not addressed. An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Under the Act, search engines must minimise the risk of people in the UK encountering illegal content, including content in search results, or content within one click of a search result.”
The Molly Rose Foundation, set up in memory of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old who took her own life after viewing negative online content, cited a section of the Online Safety Act that requires search services to take proportionate measures to mitigate harm. Adele Zeynep Walton, whose sister Aimee Walton took her life after accessing the site, said: “Families like mine have been agonisingly waiting for action against the website that took our loved ones and at least 164 UK lives.”
