Young Australians are prolific social media users who spend more than 3 hours per day interacting across an average of 6 to 8 social media platforms. The impact social media has on young people is widely critiqued with some researchers identifying causal associations between time spent online with rising rates of youth psychological distress, self-harm and suicide. However, social media has also been identified as an important context to provide support to young people and an environment many young people feel comfortable seeking help. Although research suggests that social media can be used to detect and respond to suicide risk, very few suicide prevention strategies currently consider social media or online safety as a priority area for action.
From the perspective of young people, policy makers, and the social media industry, this study aimed to identify the challenges and concerns relating to online communication about self-harm and suicide. A secondary aim was to understand what further actions social media companies and policy makers could be taking to keep young people safe online.
Six focus groups were conducted with young people aged 16 to 25 (N=7), Australian policy makers who work in the field of online safety, education, and health (N=14), and social media companies (N=7). Focus groups were structured around questions relating to the challenges associated with online communication about self-harm and suicide, what further actions could be taken to keep young people safe online, and where responsibility sits. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using framework analysis.
This presentation will share the findings of this study, including themes related to the reasons young people communicate online about suicide and the factors that influence those conversations, the challenges individuals, companies and policy makers face when attempting to regulate and legislate content that has a global reach, and the need for shared industry standards to be implemented and enforced by governments.
These findings call for future suicide prevention strategies to consider online safety and highlight the roles of individuals, social media companies, and policy makers in creating safe online environments. Improvements in national policies, as well as platform-specific policies, will better support young people and mitigate the risk of social media increasing distress in young people.