Despair of the social media teens
Almost one-fifth have felt ‘life is not worth living’ due to content
ALMOST one in five 16 to 18-year-olds have felt “life is not worth living” because of social media.
A highly troubling poll has uncovered concerns about the disturbing material young people are accessing online.
Some 18% of older teenagers said they are exposed to suicide or self-harm content at least once or twice a month.
And almost a third (31%) said they encounter “sexist, racist or homophobic opinions” monthly.
Social media firms are facing calls from parents to make their platforms safer for children. Ofcom this week released proposed new rules that would include forcing the tech companies to introduce robust age checks.
The research, by Parentkind, found 74% of young people believe social media is harmful, while two-thirds think smartphones are too.
Almost half of teens said they stay awake past midnight looking at their smartphone “most weeks” with a similar proportion saying they were addicted to apps or games on their phone.
Some 47% of girls have been sent a sexual image or message from a stranger and 45% of girls
74% of children aged 16 to 18 believe social media is harmful to their health
said they felt pressure to “change the way they look” as a result of having a smartphone at their disposal.
And 17% of the teenagers polled said they encountered “extremely violent or gory images” monthly.
Jason Elsom, chief executive of Parentkind, said: “We have to ask why politicians are not taking urgent action to save our children from harm when we are facing an unprecedented child and adolescent mental health crisis
“Even more concerning is the way suicide and self-harm content is being pushed on teens.
“We need to give children their childhood back and stop the spread of sexual violence, suicide adulation and bullying.”
WeThink interviewed 1,003 young people aged 16 to 18 in England, Wales and Scotland for the poll in the last month.
Parents of 11 children whose deaths have been linked to social media activity this week urged Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to do all they can to make tech firms tackle risks on their platforms.
The group included Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly, 14, took her own life in 2017 after being bombarded with thousands of posts about suicide, self-harm and depression.
This week, he told the Mirror delays to an online crackdown will cost “young human lives”.
Esther Ghey, mum of 16-yearold Brianna, who was murdered after one of her killers viewed violent material on the dark web, was also part of the group.