Here at Meg’s Legacy, we think it’s important to be a voice to address mental health issues. We feature an educational article in each newsletter, and today, we address the topic of self-harm by youth.
Alie Kirch is an advisor for Meg’s Legacy of Hope.
As we have discussed here, social media continues to be a topic of debate due to its potential positive and negative impacts. We live in a time where many young people are constantly on their phones, watching TikTok, Instagram Reels, and posting on Snapchat.
Unfortunately, some school administrators, teachers and staff—particularly those in the mental health roles- have observed a troubling trend: students learning about self-harm and the romanticization of suicide through these platforms, especially TikTok. The students who engage in such behavior are as young as elementary students.
Tik Tok is also a repository of harmful trends, such as using erasers to create burns or utilizing pencil sharpeners for self-harm and have become a growing concern of school personnel. Students often share these videos or messages with one another, sometimes participating in self-harm challenges.
Many parents have been unaware of their students’ engagement in these trends until their children show signs of participation. Parents are left feeling shocked, deeply concerned and struggling to broach the subject with their children and school administration. While not all students engage in these behaviors, the fact that some do—or are even exposed to such content—is alarming and should be a concern for all.
To help mitigate these risks, parents can take steps such as:
- Monitor their students’ phone and social media usage.
- Many smartphones offer parental control settings that can be utilized to limit exposure to harmful content.
- Have open and honest conversations with children about what they encounter on social media and at school, which can be instrumental in addressing these concerns.
- Discuss this topic with your school counseling team and administration.
The responsibility for age-appropriate discussions about suicidal ideations and self-harm should start at home but it is something we all need to manage together. Teaching students what to do is key to keeping them safe if they have ever self-harmed, or know someone engaging in self-harm or having suicidal ideations.
If your teen is engaging in self-harm, it does not automatically mean they are having thoughts of suicide or hope to die (NSSI = non-suicidal self-injury). For more on this important topic, see link:
