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Digital technologies can have both positive and negative effects on mental health.
Yet research shows that young people often feel unsupported in navigating the digital world and can struggle to manage their lives online.
Here are some tips to help you support young people in navigating their digital lives. We learned these from the young people we spoke to as part of the ySKILLS project.
1.
Young people make a lot of effort to ensure their online experience is positive. They try to learn new skills, avoid negative content and create positive online spaces. They also take pride in learning to cope and building resilience.
- Acknowledge their efforts and show genuine interest.
- Ask them what they think about a recent story to do with the online world – it’s a good icebreaker.
- Seek their recommendations on where to go to find out what really goes on when they are online.
2.
Young people who experience harm online often don’t tell anyone what happened. They may feel ashamed, guilty, or afraid of negative reactions or consequences.
- Explore and validate the young person’s responses in a non-judgemental manner.
- Help them feel comfortable discussing difficult experiences by acknowledging how common they are.
3.
Young people often don’t know where to find support for their online problems. If professionals avoid talking to young people about their digital lives, their online struggles can worry them even more.
- Young people don’t expect adults to be experts on digital platforms, and they value being asked about their digital lives.
- If you are worried that something problematic has happened online, ask the young person directly.
- Asking directly about problematic experiences can show that you are willing to help.
4.
Young people may find it hard to locate reliable and trustworthy resources online. They may follow or communicate with someone online who acts like a best friend but who shares extreme or problematic content.
- Try not to express strong feelings or appear shocked when learning about extreme experiences.
- Instead, try to help them find trustworthy sources of information that help them think critically about what they see or hear online.
- Encourage them to be open to different views.
5.
Participating in the digital world can be important for young people with mental health difficulties. They value connecting online with others who share similar difficulties, accessing helpful information, or finding distractions from difficult situations.
- It is best to keep a balanced perspective in your conversations with the young person – discuss both the positives and the negatives.
- It can help to ask questions about when they first went online and what excited them, what they enjoy doing online.
- Then ask if anything has changed, and if so, when and why.
6.
Even though young people may have good knowledge and digital skills, this cannot protect them from everything. They may know a photo has been altered, but that doesn’t stop them from comparing themselves to it, and they can lose confidence in themselves.
- Talk with them in a way that helps them identify the problem but that also makes them feel understood and valued and to see themselves more positively.
- Ask them what they have found online that they find helpful, and what they can recommend to others who need support.
7.
Digital technologies can create problems for young people online - for example, ‘recommender systems’ that automatically suggest content. They may be shown unwanted harmful content or find themselves in extreme situations.
- Be careful not to use language that judges them or suggests they are responsible for issues beyond their control.
- Ask them how their online problems came about – there’s often a long backstory.
- You can advise the young person to intentionally seek and engage with positive content that will change what the algorithms push towards them. But let them know that you don’t know how helpful this will be, as situations and digital services vary.
8.
Whilst some young people worry that their online problems may be detected by others, including parents, school and even the police, others may be oblivious to risk, or even what is illegal. If a risk emerges, they can suddenly feel exposed and ashamed.
- Try not to make them feel they are the only person to have experienced the problem.
- Support the young person in a way that helps them feel in control of how the situation is handled.
9.
Not all young people have access to the devices and online opportunities they want or that others have. In a digital society, this might affect their self-esteem and social status.
- Convey that young people are diverse in what they know and what they can do with technology, so they don't feel under pressure to be the experts who know how to deal with everything.
- Do not take expensive technology or good Wi-Fi for granted as that may be out of their reach.
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These tips build on findings from interviews with 62 young people aged 12-22 from Norway and the UK who had a range of mental health difficulties.
For more findings and recommendations, see here: zenodo.org/record/7372552.
MENTAL HEALTH AND DIGITAL SKILLS: an online resource for young people
This is a resource about mental health in the digital environment designed by young people for their peers and the adults in their lives. It explains young people’s experiences of mental health online and offers useful resources for supporting young people.
Images copyright: storyset from Freepik.
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