Social media is ‘normalising’ self-harm, warns coroner as boy of 13 found hanged
A CORONER has warned that social media is ‘normalising’ self-harm and suicide following the death of a gifted 13-year-old boy.
Bradley Trevarthen had become ‘fascinated with the concept of suicide and selfharming’ before he was found hanged, an inquest heard.
The schoolboy was an ‘ avid gamer’ who became more depressed and withdrawn in the days leading up to his death on January 10 last year. The hearing was told that Bradley, from Durrington, Wiltshire, had spoken to friends about killing himself as well as seeking out and watching suicide videos online.
But his father, former Army warrant officer Jamie Trevarthen, said he did not see Bradley’s death coming as there were no obvious signs as to how he was feeling – despite being ‘very, very close’ to his son.
Coroner David Ridley blamed ‘availability and access’ to internet videos that normalise self-harm, warning that parents were not necessarily aware of the dangers.
Mr Ridley recorded a verdict of accidental death by hanging at the inquest in Salisbury. He said he did not think Bradley had intended to take his own life.
Mr Ridley said: ‘ What concerns me about Brad’s case and the way children and young people talk about social matters is the availability and access to material on the internet.
‘It almost normalises something that is not normal. There is an issue in terms of accessing the internet – I think it is a problem, it is too easy. There is an element of Pandora’s Box.’ He added: ‘There is an issue in relation to making parents aware. I think a lot more could be done.
‘The trouble is it is such a vast, changing environment that we live in. It is very difficult to catch up.’ Mr Trevarthen, 42, said parents
‘Internet like a Pandora’s Box’
should treat children as ‘responsible people’, and have open discussions with them about who they talk to online.
‘The coroner did say he had a 13-year-old son himself, so Bradley’s death and this cause was quite close to his heart,’ he added. ‘I didn’t see it coming. Bradley had a cold around Christmas and was a bit down in the dumps, which I put down to the fact he was ill. He used to spend a lot of time of an evening chatting to his friends online.’
Mr Trevarthen said: ‘Nowadays kids seem to spend their lives in bedrooms, chatting online while playing games. When I was young you’d go out, knock on your friends’ doors and play outside.
‘Parents should take an interest in the people their children are talking to online, and make sure it’s a safe environment.’
He also said Bradley used voice recording and text chat app Discord to talk to friends while he was gaming.
He added: ‘The coroner said his own son used a lot of similar websites to Bradley.
‘You don’t know what goes on in these chats – you can log in and take a look but kids can delete their history if they want to. Bradley was very sensitive as a child – he was a perfectionist.
‘Parents need to try to talk to their children as human beings and not assume that everything is all hunky-dory. I don’t want to scare every parent out there, but I was very, very close to Bradley, we talked quite a lot, but he kept this private.’
Mr Trevarthen described his son as ‘a very pleasant child’ and ‘very gifted... the most talented mathematician in his school, he was a genius really’, adding that Bradley achieved a merit award in national maths competition the Junior Mathematical Olympiad.
Following the tragic death, Mr Trevarthen, his wife Jenna, 35, and Bradley’s sister Eva, ten, moved to Bodmin, Cornwall. Yesterday, Mr Trevarthen and his father Michael, 60, were walking a 13-mile Bodmin Tors Challenge to raise money for young suicide prevention charity Papyrus in Bradley’s memory. They have so far raised £1,825.
Mr Ridley will write to the minister for digital and creative industries, Margot James, about the worrying trend of children being exposed to suicide and self-harm online.