Are We Doing Enough to Stop Bullying?

A new study reminds us that preventing bullying may truly save lives.

If you have kids of a certain age, this won’t come as a surprise to you. But kids across the country are suffering.

Mental health among teen girls is the worst it has been since measurement began, with the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior survey showing that 3 out of 5 teen girls feel persistent sadness and one out of three have seriously considered attempting suicide.

The numbers are even worse among kids who identify as sexual and gender minorities – with half of LGBTQ+ teens in that same survey reporting seriously considering suicide.

The causes of this epidemic of youth depression are not entirely clear, though fingers have, appropriately in my opinion, pointed to social media and the pandemic as contributors to the shocking numbers.

Whatever the cause, it’s clear that something needs to be done. And amid the myriad of proposals percolating through congress from banning TikTok to increasing the age limit for social media use, there may be some lower hanging fruit to pick: stopping bullying.

#bullying #kids #suicideprevention

[ChrisCapoccia]

For many of us, we grew up in school before the existence of modern Internet and social media. We still had plenty of bullying. Agree about impact from the pandemic. The social disruption of the pandemic created lots of new stress, and it seemed like lots of people forgot how to be civilized

[jpintero]

My son is in a drama class where 80% are trans or gender fluid. He is a straight white boy. He loves drama but is being constantly yelled at and belittled for his gender. The teacher is asexual and does nothing to stop it! It is surreal.