Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today's episode is another classic from our archives. This one deals with the difficult subject of teen cyber bullying and the perhaps at first glance strange phenomenon of teens who create fake accounts to bully themselves online. Hi, brain Stuff, Lauren Fogelbaum. Here. Today's episode deals with the subject of self harm. Go on and skip it if you'd prefer, and take care of yourself. Okay.
When fourteen year old Hannah Smith from Leicestershire, England, tragically took her life in her family sided months of relentless cyber bullying via the web app ask dot fm. But when investigators dug deeper, they discovered something even more devastating of the abuse of messages were sent by Hannah herself. It's called self cyber bullying or digital self harm, the act of setting up fake social media accounts to post hurtful messages about yourself. And while sounds bizarre, why would anyone,
especially a struggling adolescent, want to bully themselves online? It's much more common than previously thought. According to a sixteen national survey of twelve to seventeen year olds, seven point one percent of boys and five point three percent of girls said that they had anonymously posted mean messages about themselves. Samir Hinduja is co director of the Cyber Bullying Research Center and a professor of criminology and criminal justice at
Florida Atlantic University. He conducted the Digital self Harm study with Cyberbullying Research Center co director Justin Patchen, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin all Claire. Hinduja and Patchen chose the term digital self harm as opposed to self cyber bullying or self trolling to draw attention to possible connections between this destructive online behavior and traditional self harming acts like cutting, burning, or hitting oneself.
According to the latest figures, between thirteen and eighteen percent of adolescence worldwide report to committing at least one self harming act, and more alarmingly, among young adults with a history of self harming behaviors, seventy sent attempts suicide at least once and make multiple suicide attempts. The researchers wanted to see whether there might be a link between online
self harm and these negative behaviors. Their study represents the first comprehensive look at digital self harm among adolescents, and their results were published in the Journal of Adolescents Health. On the surface, digital self harm looks like other instances of cyber bullying. The victim receives threatening or abuse of posts on social media or via text messages, saying unfortunately common internet insults along the lines of your ugly and
nobody likes you, or you should just kill yourself. But the truth is that the victim is also the perpetrator, directing the abuse at themselves through behavior that's at once a call for help and a cry for attention. As part of Hinduja and Patched and study, which analyzed email responses from a nationally representative sample of five thousand, five and nine adolescents, the researchers asked young teens to share
reasons why they had sent themselves bullying messages. Some of the kids, mostly boys, so that they were just bored and thought it was funny. But more than half of those who admitted cyber bullying themselves indicated that other people were the real audience or expressed some message of self hate. A fourteen year old boyfriend Wisconsin, wrote that he wanted other people's pity and wanted to be validated that someone
did actually care about me. Another boy indicated that posting abuse of messages about himself might rally a supporting online community around him. Quote. Everyone is going to have moments in their lives hating themselves. Sometimes it helps posting about it online. The internet might be a terrible place, but there are tons of people around the world who are willing to help you, he wrote. In general, Hindi just says.
Boys and the survey were more likely to have participated in digital self harm as a joke, while girls were more likely to do it as an expression of what the researchers called deep seated emotional turmoil. Teens who identified as lgbt Q were three times more likely to cyber bully themselves, and kids who were cyber bullied by others were twelve times more likely to later train the abuse on themselves. As one sixteen year old girl wrote on her survey, after this happened at school and online, I
became very depressed. I didn't like myself very much. I felt like I deserved to be treated this way, so I thought I would get in on the fun. The researchers say that this kind of self harming and self hating behavior seems completely irrational from a psychological standpoint, that it's actually a classic example of what are called maladaptive coping mechanisms when coping with depression or abuse. Hindu just
says adults do the same sort of thing. Sometimes we indulge in alcohol or drugs, use smoking as a crutch, engage in reckless behavior and reckless choices sexual or otherwise.
The researchers stress that much more study needs to be done in order to understand the extent of digital self harming behaviors and their underlying causes, but it's important for parents, teachers, and law enforcement to understand that it exists and to not assume that abusive and disturbing posts necessarily originated from
outside cyber bullies. Organizations like the Cyber Smile Foundation and to Write Love on Her Arms not only offer support for people who struggle with depression, self harming behavior, and cyber bullying, but provide volunteer opportunities to spread messages of positivity and support online. Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tristan McNeil. And Tyler Klein. If you were someone you know is struggling, check out the sources we mentioned in this episode, or a Google for
other help in your area. I probably don't know you, but I think you're rad. And for more on listen lots of other mental health topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a production of our Heart Radio. For more podcasts in my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.