There are many drivers of the youth mental health crisis, but the impact of social media has featured in recent public discourse more than most.
Few people globally have done as much research on the topic as Orygen's Head of Suicide Prevention, Professor Jo Robinson, who this week held conversations with several key stakeholders on the topic at Parliament House in Canberra.
Here she writes about those conversations, her research findings, and why blanket bans are not the answer.
There is a lot of concern at the moment about the impact of social media on youth mental health, self-harm and suicide, both here in Australia and elsewhere in the world. This is leading governments across Australia to consider steps they can take to improve the online safety of young people, with one approach being to introduce social media bans and trial age assurance technologies for those under 16 years of age.
There are many reasons why bans are unlikely to be successful and these have been well articulated by many across the mental health sector. However, it is worth repeating that concerns include: the risk of driving young people into less regulated and more harmful online environments; the failure to equip young people with digital literacy skills to help them safely navigate the online world; and the issue of sacrificing young people’s digital rights when the onus should be on the social media industry to create and maintain safer communities.
What is lacking in the current debate is the voice of young people, as well as evidence upon which to base important and complex policy decisions such as these. There also appears to be a lack of willingness to work with both young people and the tech industry to find realistic alternatives to blanket bans, which may have negative unintended consequences.
Indeed, our work in youth suicide prevention has identified that, in addition to the potential for harm, there are key benefits of using social media that must not be overlooked. Social media can provide an important source of connection for many young people, in particular those from marginalised groups. Young people have also repeatedly told us that they turn to social media to communicate about difficult topics, such as self-harm and suicide, because they feel unable to discuss them elsewhere due to stigma and a fear of burdening others. And, perhaps most troubling, many turn to social media in times of crisis because they are unable to access professional help offline.
In contrast to offline supports, social media is free and easy to access; it is available 24 hours a day and young people can readily connect with others who are experiencing similar difficulties. If we restrict access to social media for this group of young people, where will they turn and how will they get the help and support they need?
This week, we hosted a special symposium at Parliament House in Canberra. The event focused on the role of social media in preventing self-harm and suicide in young people and I had the privilege of presenting some new work that I have led over the past two years. We also had an excellent panel discussion moderated by Elfy Scott and featuring one of Orygen’s youth advisers, Sankara Santosa, Mia Garlick, Regional Director of Policy at Meta, and Kellie Britnell, Awareness and Capability Manager at the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.
WHAT WAS DISCUSSED
The discussion focused on the complexity of online communication about self-harm and suicide, noting that what may be helpful for some may be harmful for others. It also explored the challenge of moderating such a fast-moving environment where freedom of expression needs to be balanced with safety, yet there is a paucity of evidence to guide decision-making. Discussion also focused on the benefits – which included that all-important source of support, connection and help in times of need.
The conversation also set out some important steps that both the industry and policymakers could be taking to improve the online safety of young people when it comes to self-harm and suicide.
These included:
suggestions for the industry, such as: improving platform algorithms to reduce the amount of harmful content young people are exposed to whilst increasing the amount of helpful/educational content; including content warnings ahead of self-harm or suicide-related content; and, ensuring safety features and policies are evidence based and co-designed with young people.
suggestions for policymakers, such as: ensuring that online safety forms part of future suicide prevention policies; ensuring that future online safety policies protect the digital rights of young people, are evidence-based and consider youth mental health, self-harm and suicide; and supporting educational programs both via social media and in schools.
None of the evidence generated by our work pointed to the use of blanket bans and age restrictions.
As noted above, the pathways to self-harm and suicide are complex, and social media, or the online world more broadly, is likely only one of them. But I would argue that another reason young people feel so disconnected and so hopeless right now is that their needs are not really being taken into consideration by decision makers. Housing and climate policies are good examples of that, so let’s not make online regulation another such policy.
Australia has led the way in terms of youth participation and the involvement of people with lived experience in mental health, as well as in the area of online safety with the establishment of The Office of the eSafety Commissioner and with our own #chatsafe program of work, but we do need to rise to the current challenges we are facing and we need to listen to both young people and the empirical evidence as we tackle these challenges.
Finally, collaboration is key - collaboration across government, with young people, with the industry, with mental health and suicide prevention experts, and internationally. This is a complex problem. It is also a global problem, so we do not have to solve it alone.
FURTHER READING