The father of schoolgirl Molly Russell has urged social media companies not to “drag their feet waiting for legislation”, as a coroner issued recommendations including separate platforms for adults and children.

Coroner Andrew Walker sent a Prevention of Future Deaths report to businesses such as Meta, Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat as well as the UK Government on Thursday, in which he urged a review of the algorithms used by the sites to provide content.

The 14-year-old, from Harrow in north-west London, ended her life in November 2017 after viewing suicide and self-harm content online, prompting her family to campaign for better internet safety.

Reacting to the recommendations issued by the coroner, Molly’s father Ian said: “We urge social media companies to heed the coroner’s words and not drag their feet waiting for legislation and regulation, but instead to take a proactive approach to self-regulation to make their platforms safer for their young users.

“They should think long and hard about whether their platforms are suitable for young people at all.”