One in 5 16-18s felt ‘life not price residing’ as a consequence of social media, ballot finds
Almost one in five 16 to 18 year olds have felt “life is not worth living” due to social media, a worrying poll has found.
The survey 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, while almost a third (31%) said they encounter “sexist, racist or homophobic opinions” every month.
Social media firms are facing calls from parents to make their platforms safer for children. Ofcom this week released proposed new rules for that would include forcing the tech companies to introduce robust age checks.
The research by Parentkind found three quarters (74%) of young people believe social media is harmful, while two thirds (67%) think smartphones cause harm. 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 smartphone.
Some 47% of girls have been sent a sexual image or message by a stranger and 45% of girls said they felt pressured to “change the way they look” as a result of having a smartphone. According to the poll, nearly one in five (17%) older teens said they encounter “extremely violent or gory images” every month.
Parentkind’s chief executive Jason Elsom said: “One in five older teenagers tell us that their social media has made them feel that life is not living at some point, we have to ask why our 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 teenagers. We need to give children their childhood back and stop the spread of sexual violence, suicide adulation, and bullying through social media and smartphones.” WeThink interviewed 1,003 young people aged 16 to 18 in England, Wales and Scotland for Parentkind between April 26 and May 2.
Parents of 11 children whose deaths they link to social media activity this week urged Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to do all they can to force tech giants to tackle the risks on their platforms.
The group included Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly took her own life aged 14 after being bombarded with thousands of harmful posts about suicide, self-harm and depression in the final six months of her life. It also included Esther Ghey, the mother of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, who was murdered after one of her killers, Scarlett Jenkinson, viewed violent material on the dark web.
