Social media: Self-harm in young girls has spread globally like a virus

Self-harm in young girls has spread globally like a virus, and smartphones and social media are largely to blame, Queensland’s chief health officer has warned.

Chief health officer John Gerrard has voiced his concern. Picture: David Kelly

Self-harm in young girls has spread globally like a virus, and smartphones and social media are largely to blame, Queensland’s chief health officer has warned.

John Gerrard told a mental health forum at Balmoral State High School in Brisbane on Tuesday night hospital admissions due to self-harm in girls aged 10 to 14 had tripled in a decade.

“This is the period from about 2010 to about 2021, and I will tell you upfront when they first showed me this information I said it was wrong, it can’t be right,” he said.

“We don’t see full data like that changing rapidly.”

Dr Gerrard said the mental health of young people had been deteriorating since 2010.

“It looks like an epidemic of a novel virus that was introduced into the world population and infected young kids from 10 and up, particularly girls throughout the world, and has spread ever since,” he said.

Dr Gerrard said a major contributor to the decline was likely social media and smartphones.

“So having informed the Health Minister (Shannon Fentiman), I’m now also speaking at Commonwealth level with the federal authorities,” he said

“My feeling is the first step in this is to have these conversations.

“This meeting is all part of this first step to work out what we can do about this phenomenon, what we can do about it as a group, because no one individual is going to drive it.”

It comes amid The Courier-Mail’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, which has called for social media access to be limited to those aged 16 or over.

The campaign has won the backing of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Premier Steven Miles and other political and health leaders.

One parent at Tuesday night’s forum asked about the most appropriate response when a child about self-harm.

Children’s Health Queensland medical director of child and youth mental health services Dr Stephen Stathis said a parent did not need to unpack all the reasons, they just needed to connect with their child and understand the distress they were going through.

The forum was convened by Education Minister Di Farmer, and also heard from Screen Sanity director Fiona Foxon and Sunlight Centre clinical director Ken Lotus.

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