What Every Parent Should Know About Digital Self-Harm • CHILD Magazines

29 Aug What Every Parent Should Know About Digital Self-Harm

Posted at 11:53h in Inform by admin

Michelle Mitchell looks at digital self-harm, what it is and what it can do to our young people.

Digital self-harm is a relatively new phenomenon which has little public awareness.

In my research, I found that digital self-harm was definitely an area which young people were far more aware of than adults. When a local mum asked her 12 and 14 year-olds whether they had heard of ‘kids bullying themselves online’ they responded, “Yeah they do it to get attention.” She was shocked by their cold and matter-of-fact reaction, especially as she had never heard the term ‘digital self-harm’ before. My interactions with many school staff and professionals reflect the same tone.

Digital self-harm is the posting or sharing of demeaning information about oneself anonymously online.

Unfortunately, I personally believe the awareness of digital self-harm is still yet to fully surface in homes and schools. With 35% of young people saying that digital self-harm was successful in achieving what they wanted it to achieve, I anticipate it will be a strategy that continues to rise in popularity. Because of this, it is critical that parents and professionals are aware and forearmed to tackle conversations, as the implications may be catastrophic if we are not prepared.

Digital self-harm is known as the online variant of self-harm. It is also called self-cyberbullying, cyber self-harm or self-trolling. Digital self-harm is the posting or sharing of demeaning information about oneself anonymously online. It usually occurs when someone creates an anonymous online account and cyber-bullies themselves, posting hateful or negative comments to harm their reputation.

Comments can be posted by fake screen names

Digital self-harm can be a single comment or hundreds of comments on a young person’s Instagram feed, through SMS, email, social media, gaming consoles, web forums or any other online platform that can be conceived. Comments can be posted by fake screen names, ‘handles’ and aliases made up by a young person. Examples of comments might be, “if u only knew how much ur boyfriend hated u”, “u r fat”, “don’t come and sit with us tomorrow”, “no one likes you anyway”, “u are a useless waste of space”, “your new haircut looks disgusting”, and “u think you are something special but u aren’t.”

Think of a young person in their room at night alone, using a few fake accounts to bully themselves with hateful comments. Their friends see those comments and have a chance to respond to them, both defending them or even encouraging the bullying. The actual person and the bully can continue to respond, until late into the night! Sometimes a young person will approach the school guidance officer, or trusted friends the next morning in an attempt to reach out for help for the online bullying, which they themselves started.

Approximately 6% of adolescents aged 12 -17 engage in digital self-harm. Other surveys have found that approximately 9% of young people engage in the practice. While these percentages are not very large, they do indicate a problem when extrapolated out to the millions of teens in the US. Although there is limited research in this area, digital self-harm is something we need to be aware of as parents, as its participation rates mirror those of traditional self-harm.

The intensely private nature of this topic means that further information will continue to surface over time. Sadly, digital self-harm has been difficult for parents and educators to identify.

Here are some of the warning signs to look out for:

change in sleep or eating habits
lack of interest in social activities
withdrawal from friends and family
drop in grades at school
sadness or anxiety
agitation when receiving texts or notifications
inability to detach from devices
change to routine such as going to sleep later or waking up earlier
internet activity through the night
spending free time isolated or in their bedroom
bullying at school or friendship dramas

Thank you for sharing this article. You never know the difference you could make to someone else’s life.

Michelle is an educator, author and award-winning speaker whose passion is to support families as they build resilience in young people. In 2000 Michelle left teaching and founded Youth Excel, a charity which supported thousands of young people with life skills education, mentoring and psychological services. Michelle’s hands-on experience in the health and wellbeing sector has made her an engaging and sought after speaker. She lives in Brisbane, Australia with her husband and two teenagers.

Self+Harm+cover Michelle Mitchell’s “Self-Harm: Why Teens Do It and What Parents Can Do To Help”.