Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has attempted a cheap PR stunt by summoning executives of major social media corporations to address the problem of cyber-bullying and self harm.
“Social media has become a fundamental part of our children’s lives and while the internet provides amazing opportunities we cannot ignore the negative effect disturbing images and bullying are having on their mental health,” he said. “Now is the time to turn the tide on this abuse. I will be working closely with the top social media companies to ensure they can become the solution and not the problem.”
While the issue is obviously important it is difficult to see how talks with global companies will affect online safety when Theresa May’s commitment to removing extremist content from sites has achieved little. By focussing on this issue Hunt may win headlines about his concern for young people in the digital age to balance the growing media coverage about his responsibility for a struggling NHS this winter.
Education
Dr Marc Bush, chief policy adviser at the young people’s mental health charity YoungMinds, says social media firms have an important role to play in tackling online bullying but broader education is also crucial.
That means ensuring that “young people learn about the positives and negatives of social media from a young age and that they know what to do if they’re being harassed or come across upsetting content,” he told the BBC. “It also means encouraging young people to take responsibility for their own behaviour and to understand what the impact might be on other people of what they post.”
The reported aims of Hunt’s challenge are wide and abstract attempts to identify abuse and how often it occurs. He also encourages networks to clamp down on underage users and provide advice and support to victims of abuse.
A Facebook spokesman said the world’s largest social network was already taking action. “We have already introduced online tools such as Instagram’s automated offensive comment filter and last month launched a new partnership between Facebook, Childnet International and The Diana Award, which is offering every UK secondary school the chance to have a young digital safety ambassador who can support their peers’ safety and well-being,” he said.
Cyberchondria?
The Royal Society for Public Health think tank has already produced a well-researched report on what websites need to be done online to help young people’s mental health.
Ironically that report called for Hunt’s own NHS England to apply a certification to validate health information published on social media.
“The Information Standard is a certification scheme that lets the public know an organisation that is giving out information on health and social care is trustworthy,” the report explained. “We would like to see NHS England apply this same quality filter to health information that is published on social media platforms.” About 50,000 organisations produce health and social care information for the public in England, making it difficult for readers to know who to trust.
Airbrushing
Another recommendation in the think tank’s report for specific action rather than Hunt’s broad generalisations was to clearly mark photos on social media that have been “airbrushed” to make people look better.
The report found that 68% of young people surveyed would like to see social media admitting when a photo has been manipulated.
The report also suggested that academic institutions, independent researchers and social media companies should do more research into the impact of social media on mental health as social media is such a new phenomenon that there is still little known on the subject.
Commissioning such research is one way that Hunt certainly could help, rather than calling a meeting with social media corporations. An even more radical option for understanding the extent and nature of the problem might be to help those who are already suffering by improving the NHS’s atrociously short-staffed and underfunded mental health services. Just saying.
by Stewart Vickers
The post NHS: Jeremy Hunt’s Social Media Sham appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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