The stat ist ics behind the story
The Government has announced it’s working on new laws that will force digital companies to take down harmful content more quickly and face legislation if they don’t do more to protect users from content promoting suicide and self-harm.
This came in the same week as research from The Prince’s Trust revealed 16- to 25-year-olds have become more anxious, with 18% now disagreeing with the statement ‘life is really worth living’. A decade ago, just 9% disagreed with that statement. Meanwhile, 57% believe that social media creates an ‘overwhelming pressure’ to succeed, with almost half saying that comparing their lives to their friends’ makes them feel ‘inadequate’. These results were made public shortly after it was revealed that youth suicide rates have almost doubled in eight years.
The causes of anxiety, depression and suicide are complex, of course, but the rise of social media has occurred as mental health has deteriorated. The parents of Molly Russell – the 14-year-old who took her own life in 2017 – have been deeply critical of social media. Her father, Ian Russell, told the BBC, ‘I have no doubt that Instagram helped kill my daughter.’ Before her death, Molly was repeatedly presented with content linked to suicide and selfharm on Instagram and Pinterest, with lines such as, ‘This world is so cruel and I don’t want to see it any more.’
Instagram has responded by announcing it will ban all graphic images of self-harm, such as cutting, although non-graphic images, such as photographs of healed scars, will still be allowed but will be made more difficult to find by excluding them from search results and recommended content.