by Aimee Keenan-Greene
A new study in the Journal Pediatrics looks at the top 100 videos on YouTube and what anyone, including your kids, can potentially access.
Canadian researchers say explicit imagery of self-injury was common. Specifically, 90 percent of noncharacter videos had non-suicidal self-injury photographs.
Only 28 percent of character videos had in-action non-suicidal self-injury.
For both, cutting was the most common method and more than half of the videos 58 percent,do not post a warning about what the viewer was about to see.
Scientists analyzed videos viewed over 2 million times, and most, 80 percent, were accessible to a general audience. They used YouTube's search engine and the key words: 'self-injury' and 'self-harm').
The 50 most viewed character with a live individual, and noncharacter videos were selected and examined across key quantitative and qualitative variables.
Viewers rated the videos positively (M = 4.61; SD: 0.61 out of 5.0) and selected videos as a favorite over
12,000 times. Other videos' tones were largely factual or educational, 53 percent, or melancholic 51 percent.
Scientists say the nature of non-suicidal self-injury videos on YouTube may foster normalization of non-suicidal self-injury and may reinforce the behavior through regular viewing of non-suicidal self-injury–themed videos.
According to the report, non-suicidal self-injury, the deliberate destruction of one's body tissue like self-cutting or burning, without suicidal intent, is consistently 14 to 24 percent among youth and young adults.
"Graphic videos showing non-suicidal self-injury are frequently accessed and received positively by viewers. These videos largely provide non-suicidal self-injury information and/or express ahopeless or melancholic message.", researchers say, "Professionals working with youth and young adults who enact non-suicidal self-injury need to be aware of the scope and nature of non-suicidal self-injury on YouTube."
Authors:
Stephen P. Lewis, PhDa, Nancy L. Heath, PhDb, Jill M. St Denis, MAa, Rick Noble, BSb
aDepartment of Psychology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada; and
bDepartment of Educational and Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Photo Credit: You Tube
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