Now teenagers communicate mainly in a digital environment, so parents should think about whether their children are victims of cyberbullying or digital self-harm.

What is digital self-harm?

Digital Self-Harm is a phenomenon in which a teenager anonymously publishes offensive or compromising materials about himself on the Internet. He can create fake accounts in social networks and use them for cyberbullying himself.

Digital self–harm is a growing problem among teenagers. In a 2019 study of more than 4,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States, 9% of adolescents reported that they anonymously posted some obscene content about themselves on the Internet. It should be noted that in 2017 this figure was 6%.

There were also noticeable differences in sexual orientation and age – 15.5% of non-heterosexual teenagers anonymously published offensive material about themselves, and for heterosexual this figure was 8%. Also, 14-year-olds were more likely to engage in digital self-harm than 17-year-olds.