selfharm

Editor’s Note: The following story contains references to self-harm. Please dial “988” to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline if you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts or mental health-related distress. Warning! Microsoft Wants ChatGPT to Control Robots NextAI chatbots are nothing like the all-knowing and manipulative supervillains we see in movies, according to the companies behind them, at least. However, after seeing Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, formerly Bing Chat, literally call itself the Joker and suggest users…

Teens and their consumption trends on social media has always been controversial. In effect, they have been able to access almost any content that there is, even those ones that are clearly inappropriate for their age and experience. While big platforms such as Meta do not share the actual data on how the different kinds of content affect the teen mind, governments across the world are concerned about how youngsters perceive the same. Therefore, to take a step forward to solve this problem, Meta Platforms has announced…

Meta is introducing one of its most significant privacy updates yet related to teen user protection, the company announced today. They greatly expand on previous content control measures aiming to lock down teens' privacy settings, following recent lawsuits by US states and others.The new measures will hide content related to self-harm, graphic violence, eating disorders and other harmful topics from teens on Instagram and Facebook. Related content will now be restricted from users under 16 in their Feeds and Stories,…

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) is sounding the alarm on the dangers of social media in a new interview, pointing out that it could lead to more mental health issues especially among young people. Cox said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that youth mental health is “the issue of our time” in an interview that aired Sunday. Speaking alongside Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (R), Cox warned that social media is fueling the “skyrocketing” rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm among young people. “We have seen, again,…

An observational study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet indicates that medical sleep treatment with melatonin may lower self-harm rates among young people with anxiety and depression. The research, published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, found that the risk of self-harm increased before melatonin prescriptions and decreased afterward, particularly in girls.Medical sleep treatment may reduce self-harm in young people with anxiety and depression, an observational study from Karolinska Institutet in…

TikTok's algorithms are promoting videos about self-harm and eating disorders to vulnerable teens, according to a report published Wednesday that highlights concerns about social media and its impact on youth mental health.Researchers at the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate created TikTok accounts for fictional teen personas in the US, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The researchers operating the accounts then “liked” videos about self-harm and eating disorders to see how TikTok's algorithm would…

Britain's government intends to make it illegal to encourage others to harm themselves online and will fine social media companies that fail to remove such material, as part of a revamp of legislation governing online behaviour. Promoting suicide is already illegal, but Britain's digital, culture, media and sport ministry said in a statement that it now wanted to require social media firms to block a wider range of content. "Social media firms can no longer remain silent bystanders ... and they'll face fines for allowing…

The United Kingdom’s government has announced an expansion to the controversial, under-consideration Online Safety Bill. A proposed amendment to the bill would criminalize online messages or posts that encourage self-harm, and make social media companies liable if they fail to remove such content from their platforms. Under the updated legislation, if a site like Facebook or Twitter didn’t prevent or take down self-harm posts in a timely enough fashion, they would face fines, said UK Digital and Culture Secretary,…

A new study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found that patients who filled prescriptions for folic acid, also known as vitamin B9, experienced a 44% reduction in suicidal events.Study finds folic acid treatment is associated with decreased risk of suicide attemptsThe common, inexpensive supplement was linked with a 44% reduction in suicide attempts and self-harm.With nearly 46,000 people in America dying by suicide in 2020, it is one of the leading causes of death in the US. To decrease the risk of suicide, experts…

Emily Baker-White / Forbes: Web novel apps backed by ByteDance and Tencent are running hundreds of Facebook and Instagram ads showing sexual assault, violent erotica, and acts of self-harm — Some of the ads include descriptions of sexual violence, paired with images of battered women and photos of male fitness influencers, which were used without permission. Emily Baker-White / Forbes: Web novel apps backed by ByteDance and Tencent are running hundreds of Facebook and Instagram ads showing sexual…