The five iRights for children

As the number of children and young people who self-harm continues to climb at an alarming rate, schools are increasingly aware of the problem and the need for staff to support pupils. Understanding the increasing role that social media plays makes the issue harder to unpick.

To coincide with Self-harm Awareness Day at the beginning of March, a consortium of UK youth charities surveyed 2,000 11 to 21-year-olds, finding that a large number have been exposed to images online of people self-harming. A significant proportion said that these images make them “feel like hurting themselves”. This shows the complex relationship between young people, social media and self-harming behaviour. Rather than being a cry for attention or an attempt at suicide, self-harm is usually a way for young people to release overwhelming emotions. It may also be copying behaviour they see in the media or online.