Youth Mental Health Day 2024, a campaign organised by the UK's leading digital mental health charity for children stem4, takes place on the 19th September.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve at pace, young people are growing up in a world unrecognisable compared to 10 years ago. Being able to instantly connect with peers, expressing creativity, and accessing entertainment and information in an instant, are just a few of the many positives the online world presents.
Yet for every positive there is a negative, and the online world poses many hidden and overt harms that young people didn’t have to face ten years ago. In a stem4 survey of 1,025 young people, nine in ten (93%) said they had been scared by content online. They were worried about disinformation, misinformation and fake news (59%) followed by online scams and fraud (58%), online bullying (52%) and sharing of sexual images (39%). What’s more (58%) said they would avoid using search engines or apps if they knew they had the potential to cause them harm.
Following conversations with young people, stem4 has chosen to dedicate Youth Mental Health Day 2024 to the theme #ControlYourScroll, so that we can equip young people with the simple digital hacks and mental health strategies needed for a positive and safe online experience.
To find out more about the campaign, including the ways you can get involved, please see Youth Mental Health Day
A list of organisations that can help with youth mental health in Southend can be found on Livewell at Children's mental health support