How Algorithms Are Putting Children at Risk │Data Malarkey with Andy Burrows

What happens when platform design, recommendation algorithms, and commercial incentives collide with teenage vulnerability?

In this episode of Data Malarkey, Master Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles, speaks to Andy Burrows, Chief Executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, about online safety, suicide prevention, tech accountability, and the systemic failures that continue to expose children to harmful content online.

Andy explains how the Foundation's research tested Instagram and TikTok through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl, why the findings were so disturbing, and how advertising, platform incentives, legal action, and regulation all fit into a bigger picture. He also reflects on Molly's story, the role of whistleblowers, the limits of self-regulation, and why the current approach to online safety remains nowhere near strong enough.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How recommendation algorithms can intensify harm at scale

• What the Molly Rose Foundation's research found on Instagram and TikTok

• Why harmful content and advertising adjacency is such a serious issue

• How whistleblowers and legal disclosures have been so important

• Why advertisers may be part of the problem, but also part of the solution

• Why Andy sees recent US court rulings as a "big tobacco" moment for tech

• Why self-regulation has failed and stronger, safety-by-design rules are needed

• Why a social media ban is not the magic bullet many think it could be

• How AI risks are making the online safety challenge even worse

Topics we cover:

• Molly Russell's story and the mission of the Foundation in her name

• Testing harmful algorithmic recommendations

• Platform incentives and the economics of attention

• Brand safety and ad placement near harmful content

• Whistleblowers, disclosures, and Meta's conduct

• US litigation and the erosion of tech immunity arguments

• The Online Safety Act and Ofcom's limitations

• The Australia-style social media ban under the spotlight

• AI companions, AI slop, and history repeating itself

About the guest: Andy Burrows is Chief Executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, which works at the intersection of suicide prevention, online safety, and tech accountability. He has spent much of his career representing vulnerable groups, previously working in regulation, consumer policy, and online safety, including on the Online Safety Act.

Links and resources mentioned:

• The Molly Rose Foundation: https://mollyrosefoundation.org/

• Molly vs the Machines on Channel 4 - https://www.channel4.com/programmes/molly-vs-the-machines

• Take the Data Storytelling Scorecard: https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com