AAPi was featured in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, The Brisbane Times, WAToday and ABC radio over the weekend highlighting the dangers of self-harming trends on social media apps and pushing for a crackdown and heavier moderation on social media.
AAPi Director Carly Dober said tech companies “cannot be trusted to regulate themselves because their bottom line is growth”.
“We know self-harm can almost have a contagion effect if it is trending online. There is this constant catch-up game because the tech moves way faster than laws and adults,” she said.
AAPi’s Sahra O'Doherty said self-harm, while not new, had risen markedly among teenagers at her Sydney clinic due to increasing numbers of young people posting videos about it on social media.
“It infiltrates the algorithms of these young people who may already be at risk of self-harming,” she said. “Having more exposure to these sorts of things on TikTok, or wherever, normalises it for them.”
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