Kids competing online to become ‘better self-harmers’

LONDON — Children as young as 12 are competing with each other to commit worsening acts of self-harm on websites, a groundbreaking study reveals.

They described wanting to become “better self-harmers” and match horrific injuries they saw on Tumblr, one of the sites they chose because posts receive little scrutiny.

It’s the first time researchers have been able to lift the lid on such sites after securing approval to interview young self-harmers.

It will fuel growing concern sparked by the death of British schoolgirl Molly Russell, 14, who took her life after viewing self-harm images on Instagram.

This weekend, the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health called for urgent action by social media firms to tackle self-harm and backed demands for an independent regulator.

Dr. Max Davie, the college’s officer for health promotion, said: “We know that self-harm rates are high and rising, particularly among young girls, and so seeing the rise of accounts promoting selfharm is very concerning.

“The combination of social media’s incentives to be noticed, and the lack of effective regulation, can be toxic and may be contributing to this rise.”

Ministers are to announce plans for new laws to regulate social media in the next month following a Sunday Telegraph campaign for a statutory duty of care.

The Cardiff University study found some young people only began self-harming because the internet provided a catalyst. Most, though, were already self-harming and went online “to make sense of their behaviours.”

What they experienced online, however, largely normalized their harming so it became “a routine, everyday activity,” said the researchers. The children were also able to discover and share new practices and techniques.

“They became motivated to engage in further harm ... the exposure to other individuals’ severe acts made them want to become better self-harmers,” the study reports.

One woman, aged 19, told researchers she was left feeling one small cut was “not nearly good enough.”

The researchers discovered a “sense of competition.” One woman, aged 23, said she chided herself when she saw images: “Why can’t I do it like that?”

Tumblr was cited as the favoured site because it was easy to search and find images, enabled image sharing and was “not encumbered by the monitoring and intervention by other social media and microblogging sites,” said the study. Instagram also featured.

Dr. Nina Jacob, who led the research, said: “The lack of scrutiny and moderation, where you can purportedly ‘do what the hell you like,’ together with perceived anonymity, meant the site was considered more authentic than alternative platforms.”