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A TROUBLE teenager carves herself in her bloody arm, a suicidal brunette screams in the camera and a girl hurts her sweet smile with a blade.
These are just some of the disgusting items on Instagram that a sun survey has discovered in just a few clicks.
PA: Press Association
BBC
This week, devastated father Ian Russell was criticized by the social media giant – owned by Facebook – for contributing to the suicide of his 14-year-old daughter Molly.
After showing "no obvious signs" of serious mental health problems, Molly was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017.
After her death, her family learned that she had watched countless posts on Instagram, normalizing and even romanticizing self harm and suicide.
Russell, from Harrow, North West London, said: "We are keen to raise awareness of the harmful and worrying content available to young people online.
"Moreover, social media companies, through their algorithms, expose young people to increasingly dangerous content, with a single click on a message."
Even a quick Instagram search confirms Russell's fears.
And the language adopted by users on the site is designed to deceive any worried parent who is trying to monitor the well-being of his child.
The hashtags of girls' names used on the site may seem innocuous, but are actually abbreviations for serious mental health problems.
ADOLESCENTS TROUBLES WALLOW IN A HAT OF HIMSELF
Ana, anorexia, Annie, anxiety, Bella, the limit, Sophie, schizophrenia and Sue, the suicidal.
In an ominous way, thousands of images and videos of children's drawings are used on Instagram to glorify anxiety, depression, self-injury and suicidal behavior.
There is also a multitude of messages with the hashtag #sadsimpsons, for example. Parents who check their children's research history are not likely to worry, but the content is terrifying.
In a dark, black and white video, a sad Homer Simpson has a noose around his neck, next to hashtags #hatemyself and #ritzen "- a German word for self-injury.
In another, Homer is seen diving from a high-rise building.
And in a morbid rendition of AA Milne's beloved books, Eeyore's gray body is seen hanging from a tree under the gaze of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. The caption reads: "I can not believe that he really killed himself."
And while searches on #selfharm #suicide will show a warning screen to deter users from viewing images, users can simply tap "View Images Anyway".
Once inside, an avalanche of images and bloody videos resembling horror movie scenes popped up. Except that all this is real and many have collected dozens of "likes" and complimentary comments.
There are also memes with a text with sinister and hopeless messages, including: "People said to me, 'kill yourself'. I'm trying "and" how to kill you ".
The UK agency of advertisers, ISBA, has expressed concerns about posting ads alongside Instagram posts.
Instagram has more than two million advertisers, including brands such as H & M, Deliveroo, Nike, Domino's and Sainsbury's.
The minimum age to register on the site is 13 years old, but it is impossible to apply it. And while Instagram claims to want to remove graphic messages, some of the worst we've seen are at least ten days old.
Online comments are even more disturbing. Confused teenagers wallow in self-hatred, saying they are ugly, fat and impossible to love. A girl wrote in a video of a noose: "I'd like to be able to hang myself, but I'm so fat that I can not even do it."
Under his comment, a poster wrote, "To die is the answer. People make fun of you. I have legitimately tried and I am 12 years old. Life is bad. "
Many articles from people in distress draw comments designed to humiliate or further antagonize them in a practice known as "roasting".
How to protect your children
CHILDLINE offers parents many tips and information on how to solve the online problems their children may face. He has developed "TEAM" – a four-point strategy that can help you discuss any Internet-related issues with your children:
- Speak regularly to your child about what he's doing online and about safety. Tell them that they can address you or another trusted adult if they feel worried or upset by everything that they have seen.
- E XPLORE together your child's online activities. Understand why they like to use certain apps, games or websites and make sure they know what steps they can take to stay safe.
- GREE your own rules as a family when using sites, apps and games.
- M ANAGE your technology and use the privacy and parental control settings available to protect your child.
If you are worried that your child will self-mutilate: - Talk to your doctor: They can treat their injuries and refer your child to specialists, such as therapists, who will work with your child to discuss their thoughts and feelings, as well as how this affects their behavior.
- SPEAK at your child's school: The school's child protection officer should be able to appoint a staff member to whom the child can talk if he or she has a low mood. if he wants to hurt himself.
- SPEAK to your child from Childline: Childline's 24/7 free service allows youth to talk to specially trained counselors about the emotions they may feel.
Molly's family is now campaigning for social media sites to review content and prevent teenagers from viewing harmful content.
The story of the teenager has some chilling similarities with the case of Milly Tuomey, 11 years old. Before committing suicide in January 2016, the Dublin girl scribbled "The beautiful girls do not eat" on her pen body before posting timeless diary entries on Instagram retailer's intention to die.
Fiona Tuomey, Milly's mother, who founded the Healing Untold Grief group, told the Sun, "Suicide is a complex problem that can not be attributed to a single factor.
"Social media is an integral part of youth communication.
"It is time for governments to hold global companies accountable. Reorienting people to help sites is simply not enough.
"Social media giants have the power and the technology to stop that."
The UK has the highest self-harm rate of any country in Europe – and the majority of people affected are between 11 and 25 years old.
«SEE OTHER SELF-HARM NORMALIZED IT»
Addict to Instagram, 21-year-old Nicole Simone, a waitress from Dover in Kent, started automutilating at age 13 and blames social media for making her mental health problems worse.
She said, "I am very dark stories and I watched the messages of self-mutilation. It only aggravates my mental state and makes me want to hurt myself. Seeing others hurt themselves is normalizing.
In York, 21-year-old Talia Sinnott, an undergraduate student in psychology and anorexia, said, "Instagram has only encouraged my negative thoughts, advancing my illness to the point where I am I was hospitalized, weighing less than sixths.
"I was naive and without intelligence and I came across" pro-anorexia "pages. They taught me to trick my parents into believing that I was fine.
What the NSPPCC requires
The NSPCC Wild West Web campaign calls on the government to regulate social media to make the Internet safe for young people. It wants:
- A regulator to hold social networks accountable
- REPORTS by social networks on the risks on their sites
- FORCE social networks to fight against grooming
Learn more about this link: bit.ly/2HJJyzk
To learn more about the social networks your kids use, visit o2.co.uk/help/nspcc/social-sharing
Concerned children and young people can contact Childline free and confidentially 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at 0800 1111 or visit childline.org.uk
Andy Burrows, NSPCC's Associate Head of Online Child Safety, told the Sun yesterday: "We call on the government to enact new laws that require social networks to protect children from harmful online content and abuse, and to punish them in case of failure ". Night Instagram has launched an investigation into The Sun's findings – although one spokesperson insisted that some images could be BENEFITS for vulnerable users.
She said, "We do not allow content that promotes or glorifies eating disorders, self-injury or suicide and that will eliminate them.
DOUBLE AGONY
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Shriek-END
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OH LORDY
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ABDUCTED IN PLAIN VIEW
I was kidnapped by my neighbor TWICE, raped and forced to marry him
CURRENT AFFAIR
BBC News "Simon McCoy separates from his wife after an 18-month affair with his boss"
"Mental health is a complex issue and we work closely with experts who advise us in our approach.
"They tell us that sharing a person's mental health journey or connecting with others who have been fighting similar problems can be an important part of recovery.
"That's why we do not remove certain content and instead suggest to people who view or post it, to send support messages that direct them to groups that can help them."
PA: Press Association
© 2019 Richard Walker / ImageNorth
Oliver Dixon – The sun
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