Cybey-bullying is a major problem facing today's youth and has generated some recent headlines, but it may only be one side of the story when young people interact online.
Based on a review of 14 different studies that researched the link between Internet use and its impacts on younger populations, Oxford University scientists found both positive and negative relationships, the BBC reported. Researchers paid particular attention to Internet forums and their impacts on teens' well-being, though they also studied the effects of other forms of Internet use like chat rooms, email, and social networking sites.
One negative finding that prevailed in several studies was a link between Internet use and suicide and self-harm. The Internet "normalizes", or makes acceptable, behaviors like bullying and self-harm, according to the study. Internet forums were discovered to have an especially strong relationship to suicide. Eighteen percent of those on forums shared self-harm techniques, according to the study. Hopelessness was linked with more frequent participation online and in forums.
Cyber-bullying was not typically linked to Internet forums, but more common via email (18 percent), instant messaging (16 percent), social networking (14 percent), and chat rooms (10 percent). The review found that cyber bullies made their victims 1.6 to 1.9 times as likely to self-harm.
Fifty-nine percent of those studied said they were exposed to suicide and other forms of self-harm via the Internet.
On the flip side, forums were the most likely place teens turned to when seeking help for suicidal thoughts. In these arenas, teens shared their problems, advised others to seek help, and congratulated each other for refraining from harmful behavior, according to the study. Participants viewed their online spaces as a place for support, according to several of the studies, while many saw them as more helpful than information sites. Users could not agree, however, if forums reduced self-harming behavior or increased it.
"Communication via the internet and other electronic means has potential roles in both contributing to and preventing suicidal behaviour in young people," said review co-author Prof Keith Hawton. "The next step is going to be development of therapeutic interventions using these channels of communication, especially to access those who do not seek help from clinical services."
Joe Ferns of the Samaritans, a non profit hotline that specializes in preventing suicides, would like to see the results of the review used to help those in need.
"We should acknowledge that many people are using suicide forums and chatrooms to anonymously discuss their feelings of distress and despair, including suicidal thoughts, which may have a positive impact on the individual," he said. "They may be expressing feelings that they have never disclosed to anyone in their offline lives. Rather than concentrating primarily on ways of blocking and censoring such sites, we should think about online opportunities to reach out to people in emotional distress."
The research is still too young to truly understand the impacts and potential uses of internet spaces like chatrooms and forums, according to the study's concluding words: "Careful high quality research is needed to better understand how internet media may exert negative influences and should also focus on how the internet might be utilised to intervene with vulnerable young people."
The study was published in the journal Plos One.
