User:Mckenzie324/sandbox

= Social media and suicide = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Social media and suicide is a relatively new phenomenon, which influences suicide-related behavior. Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, in the year 2020, approximately 1.53 million people will die from suicide. There is increasing evidence that this behavior of using social media affects and changes people's lives, especially in teenagers. Suicide has been identified not only as an individual phenomenon, but it is influenced by social and environmental factors. As the internet becomes more ingrained in people's everyday life, they are desensitized to the mental and emotional issues it can cause.

Cyberbullicide[edit]
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 24. Cyberbullicide is the term used to define suicide due to having indirect or direct experiences with online aggression (Napolitano, 2013).Cyberbullying and cyber harassment are two prevalent ways to lead to pro-suicide behavior. In the past, bullying needed a physical location to harass the victim. Yet, this is not the case in the 21st century. Bullies have additional mediums such as social media to harass victims, often without consequence (Mason, 2008). Cyberbullying typically refers to when a child or adolescent is intentionally and repeatedly targeted by another child or teen in the form of threats or harassments or humiliated or embarrassed by means of cellular phones or Internet technologies such as e-mail, texting, social networking sites, or instant messaging. Cyberbullying usually occurs in the form of rumours, embarrassment, gossip, exclusion and attacks on the reputation and relationships of individuals. '''Cyber bullying is different from traditional style of bullying due to the fact that a person never disconnects from social media and never escapes the source of the abuse. This has become a serious health concern to people all over the internet.''' Cyber harassment and cyber stalking typically refer to these same actions when they involve adults. Social networking sites, regardless of security measures, can only offer a certain amount of protection to the privacy of the users, and this often overlooked by younger users. Cyberbullying has been deemed a major health concern for affect teens and has been deemed a major health threat to those affected by the trauma from other users on social media. By being on sites such as Facebook or Instagram, users are making them open to harassment from online predators. Since there is an enormous amount of information available on these sites, concerns have been raised that sex offenders may access these sites and, using the personal information displayed, attempt to gain the trust of the user, making them vulnerable to online attacks, seduction, or sexual grooming. The offenders may then lure the users into a face to face meeting where they may be molested or sexually assaulted. (Mitchell et al., 2008). A review of data collected between 2004 and 2010 via survey studies indicated that lifetime cyberbullying victimization rates ranged from 20.8% to 40.6% and offending rates ranged from 11.5% to 20.1%. To combat and disuade Cyberbullying, some states are making adjustments to legislature. If found guilty of Cyberbullying, some states such as California will hold the person committing the crime liable by charging fines or even jail time. In one particular case in Florida, two preteens were arrested after they were accused of cyberbullying another female student. The victim killed herself by hanging herself in her closet with a dog leash. The investigators indicated that the suicide was prompted due to the cyberbullying perpetrated by the two girls. The girls were later charged with cyberstalking. In 2015 Sadie Riggs, a Pennsylvania teen, killed herself because of online bullying and harassment at school on how she looked. Sadie's aunt Sarah Smith contacted different social media companies, police, and Sadie's school in hope to make the bullying stop. She went as far as to break Sadie's phone in front of her to stop the bullying. No charges were ever filed on those who caused the bullying of Sadie. Some parents have taken action and watched what their kids post on social media and in some cases they control what their kids can use. While this won't stop children and teens from accessing social media it will keep them from being on it constantly. It also won't stop from people from getting suicidal thoughts and doing suicidal actions either but it will help keep people alerted and a possible reason if they post suicidal thoughts