1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,280
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hi brain Stuff,

2
00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:10,480
Speaker 1: Lauren Fogelbaum. Here. Today's episode deals with the subject of

3
00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:12,719
Speaker 1: self harm. Go on and skip it if you'd prefer,

4
00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:15,760
Speaker 1: and take care of yourself. Okay. When fourteen year old

5
00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:18,599
Speaker 1: Hannah Smith from Leicestershire, England tragically took her life in

6
00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,599
Speaker 1: her family sided months of relentless cyber bullying via the

7
00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:26,080
Speaker 1: web app ask dot fm. But when investigators dug deeper,

8
00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:30,360
Speaker 1: they discovered something even more devastating. Of the abusive messages

9
00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,880
Speaker 1: were sent by Hannah herself. It's called self cyber bullying

10
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,680
Speaker 1: or digital self harm, the act of setting up fake

11
00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:40,680
Speaker 1: social media accounts to post hurtful messages about yourself. And

12
00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:43,959
Speaker 1: while it sounds bizarre, why would anyone, especially as struggling adolescent,

13
00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:46,960
Speaker 1: want to bully themselves online? It's much more common than

14
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,839
Speaker 1: previously thought. According to a national survey of twelve to

15
00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:53,400
Speaker 1: seventeen year olds, seven point one percent of boys and

16
00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:55,640
Speaker 1: five point three percent of girls said that they had

17
00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:00,680
Speaker 1: anonymously posted mean messages about themselves. Samir Hindu is co

18
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,640
Speaker 1: director of the Cyber Bullying Research Center and a professor

19
00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:07,360
Speaker 1: of criminology and criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University. He

20
00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,480
Speaker 1: conducted the digital self harm study with Cyberbullying Research Center

21
00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:13,760
Speaker 1: co director Justin Patchen, a professor of criminal justice at

22
00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,480
Speaker 1: the University of Wisconsin. All Claire Kinduja and Patchen chose

23
00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,080
Speaker 1: the term digital self harm as opposed to self cyber

24
00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,520
Speaker 1: bullying or self trolling to draw attention to possible connections

25
00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:27,039
Speaker 1: between this destructive online behavior and traditional self harming acts

26
00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,679
Speaker 1: like cutting, burning, or hitting oneself. According to the latest figures,

27
00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:33,959
Speaker 1: between thirteen and eighteen percent of adolescents worldwide report to

28
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,520
Speaker 1: committing at least one self harming act, and more alarmingly,

29
00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,160
Speaker 1: among young adults with the history of self harming behaviors,

30
00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:43,840
Speaker 1: sent attempts suicide at least once, and fifty percent make

31
00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,119
Speaker 1: multiple suicide attempts. The researchers wanted to see whether there

32
00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:49,680
Speaker 1: might be a link between online self harm and these

33
00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,160
Speaker 1: negative behaviors. Their study represents the first comprehensive look at

34
00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,000
Speaker 1: digital self harm among adolescents, and their results were published

35
00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,240
Speaker 1: in the Journal of Adolescents Health. On the surface, digital

36
00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,040
Speaker 1: self harm looks like other instances of cyber bullying. The

37
00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,000
Speaker 1: victim receives threatening or abuse of posts on social media

38
00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:09,119
Speaker 1: or via text messages, saying unfortunately common internet insults along

39
00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:11,400
Speaker 1: the lines of your ugly and nobody likes you, or

40
00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:14,320
Speaker 1: you should just kill yourself. But the truth is that

41
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:17,360
Speaker 1: the victim is also the perpetrator, directing the abuse at

42
00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:19,959
Speaker 1: themselves through behavior that's at once a call for help

43
00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,079
Speaker 1: and a cry for attention. As part of Hinduja and

44
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,359
Speaker 1: patch and study, which analyzed email responses from a nationally

45
00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:30,920
Speaker 1: representative sample of five thousand, five nine adolescents, the researchers

46
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,480
Speaker 1: asked young teens to share reasons why they had sent

47
00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:37,200
Speaker 1: themselves bullying messages. Some of the kids, mostly boys, so

48
00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:39,120
Speaker 1: that they were just bored and thought it was funny.

49
00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:41,280
Speaker 1: But more than half of those who admitted to cyber

50
00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:44,440
Speaker 1: bullying themselves indicated that other people were the real audience

51
00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,120
Speaker 1: or expressed some message of self hate. A fourteen year

52
00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,280
Speaker 1: old boyfriend Wisconsin wrote that he wanted other people's pity

53
00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,399
Speaker 1: and wanted to be validated that someone did actually care

54
00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,800
Speaker 1: about me. Another boy indicated that posting abuse of messages

55
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:02,120
Speaker 1: about himself might rally a supporting online community around him. Quote,

56
00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:04,320
Speaker 1: everyone is going to have moments in their lives hating

57
00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,720
Speaker 1: themselves sometimes it helps posting about it online. The Internet

58
00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 1: might be a terrible place, but there are tons of

59
00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:11,560
Speaker 1: people around the world who are willing to help you,

60
00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:15,120
Speaker 1: he wrote. In general, Hinduja says boys and the survey

61
00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:17,679
Speaker 1: were more likely to have participated in digital self harm

62
00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:19,760
Speaker 1: as a joke, while girls were more likely to do

63
00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:22,320
Speaker 1: it as an expression of what the researchers called deep

64
00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,320
Speaker 1: seated emotional turmoil. Teens who identified as lgbt Q were

65
00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,000
Speaker 1: three times more likely to cyber bully themselves, and kids

66
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:31,280
Speaker 1: who are cyber bullied by others were twelve times more

67
00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,520
Speaker 1: likely to later train the abuse on themselves. As one

68
00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:37,400
Speaker 1: sixteen year old girl wrote on her survey, after this

69
00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,280
Speaker 1: happened at school and online, I became very depressed. I

70
00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:42,680
Speaker 1: didn't like myself very much. I felt like I deserved

71
00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:44,280
Speaker 1: to be treated this way, so I thought I would

72
00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,120
Speaker 1: get in on the fun. The researchers say that this

73
00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,240
Speaker 1: kind of self harming and self hating behavior seems completely

74
00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:53,400
Speaker 1: irrational from a psychological standpoint, that it's actually a classic

75
00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,200
Speaker 1: example of what are called maladaptive coping mechanisms when coping

76
00:03:57,240 --> 00:03:59,840
Speaker 1: with depression or abuse. Hindu Just says adults do this

77
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,920
Speaker 1: a sort of thing. Sometimes we indulge in alcohol or drugs,

78
00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,600
Speaker 1: use smoking as a crutch, engage in reckless behavior and

79
00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,200
Speaker 1: reckless choices, sexual or otherwise. The researchers stressed that much

80
00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,520
Speaker 1: more study needs to be done in order to understand

81
00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,160
Speaker 1: the extent of digital self harming behaviors and their underlying causes,

82
00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,320
Speaker 1: but that it's important for parents, teachers, and law enforcement

83
00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:20,919
Speaker 1: to understand that it exists and to not assume that

84
00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,840
Speaker 1: abusive and disturbing posts necessarily originated from outside cyber bullies.

85
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,160
Speaker 1: Organizations like the cyber Smile Foundation and to Write Love

86
00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:30,440
Speaker 1: on Her Arms not only offer support for people who

87
00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:33,880
Speaker 1: struggle with depression, self harming behavior, and cyber bullying, but

88
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:42,680
Speaker 1: provide volunteer opportunities to spread messages of positivity and support online.

89
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:47,840
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by

90
00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:50,360
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. If you are someone you know is struggling,

91
00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:52,800
Speaker 1: check out the organizations we just mentioned, or Google for

92
00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,159
Speaker 1: other resources in your area. I probably haven't met you,

93
00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:57,880
Speaker 1: but I think you're at And of course, for more

94
00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:00,160
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other mental health topics at

95
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:09,000
Speaker 1: our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com. M