NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 26th December (32)

Without question, the Internet can be a toxic place for young people. But withdrawing access to it isn't the right answer

The mother of Tallulah Wilson, 15, who was found dead on the tracks in St Pancras station, has warned of the dangers of 'toxic' internet subcultures.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/without-question-the-internet-can-be-a-toxic-place-for-young-people-but-withdrawing-access-to-it-9080576.html

Summary

The internet is a fantastic resource for us all, it provides us with information, advice and even the opportunity to socialize with one another. However, the internet has also and continues to present us with curveballs the internet also provides access to potentially toxic and harmful information, is the base of cyber bullying etc. Mindfull works with people 11-17 years of age and some young people say that they have also seen pro-anorexia or bulimia sites. Nearly a third of young people have self-harmed because they felt down some even used social media to show off what they were doing. Although, people showing off what they are doing on social media only leads to further consequences as people comment on the posts which means that the people self-harming are only encouraged to self-harm further. Most of us look at these images and are shocked while for young people it can turn into competitive behavior. They look at an image and think "they've cut deeper than me" so they think they must do one better and cut even deeper. The temptation for worried parents when they see the problems that the internet brings could be to withdraw access to the internet altogether. However, in the digital world that we live in, this is a punishment worse that being ‘grounded’. 

Key Statistics

• 1/3 of young people say they have self-harmed because they felt down

My Opinion

I think that the way NDM and the internet has developed is amazing, but the problems that it presents us with like people self-harming are far beyond what we all understand about the internet and the digital world so we do not know how to deal with it. We are all learning as the digital world develops so the most obvious solution that we can come up with is to cut ourselves off from this world that we would now view as toxic. I think that we all need to stop trying to develop at the same speed as the world of NDM and try to understand what of the digital world already exists.