Digital Self-Harm: The Growing Problem You’ve Never Heard Of
Sameer and I first became aware of digital self-harm over a decade ago when we learned of the suicide of Hannah Smith. She was 14 years old when she ended her life after being mistreated online. The resulting investigation determined that the threats and hurtful comments directed toward her on the anonymous app Ask.fm were […]
Digital Self-Harm and Suicidality Among Adolescents
Background Research on digital self-harm – the anonymous online posting, sending, or otherwise sharing of hurtful content about oneself – is still in its infancy. Yet unexplored is whether digital self-harm is related to suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. Methods In the current study, survey data were collected in 2019 from a national sample of […]
Digital Self-Harm and Suicidality among Middle and High School Students
Sameer and I have been interested in digital self-harm for almost a decade now. We first became aware of it when we learned of the suicide of Hannah Smith, a 14-year-old girl from England who ended her own life after being mistreated online. It was ultimately determined that many of the hurtful comments directed to […]
Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Health Care Providers
This resource provides tips for health care professionals (pediatricians, school nurses, etc.) to help them identify and care for students who may have experienced cyberbullying.
How Social Media Helps Teens Cope With Anxiety, Depression, and Self-Harm
It is easy for many adults – whether educators or parents – to focus on the negatives of social media in the lives of teens today. This is understandable, because they are the ones who have to deal with the fallout when adolescents make mistakes online (cyberbullying incidents, sexting cases, electronic dating violence, digital reputation […]
Review of “UnSelfie”
Parenting expert and educational psychologist Dr. Michele Borba released a new book last week. This by itself isn’t newsworthy (she has, after all, published roughly a book a year for the last quarter of a century). But this latest contribution has the potential to have a significant impact on parents and their children. I’ve followed […]
Natural Day – Love Yourself Before You Can Love Others
Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to get to know Sanah Jivani, who is a senior at Klein Collins High School, and the founder of the international #naturalday movement. I was blown away by her story, and told her how important it was for others to hear it and be inspired by it (as I […]
Trauma, Bullying, and Cyberbullying
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the felt experiences of youth who have to deal with bullying at school or online, and how it may have a traumatic effect on some of them. One might argue that most bullying incidents don’t induce trauma, and that may be true if we view all forms and […]
Child-Centered Digital Environments To Support Rights, Agency, and Well-Being
Over the last year, I had the honor of being a part of an international working group hosted by the TUM Think Tank at the Technical University of Munich along with my colleagues from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Department of Communications and Media Research at the […]
2025 World Anti-Bullying Forum in Norway
I just wrapped up participating in the 2025 World Anti-Bullying Forum (WABF) in Stavanger, Norway, and it was…epic. I do not use that word lightly. The WABF has always been special to me, as I get to spend time with other passionate scholars and practitioners who have come together to tackle bullying in all its […]
