A video teaching kids how to harm themselves and even kill themselves keeps popping up across the internet and multiple social media platforms, including Youtube.
The video made by popular YouTube creator Filthy Frank, caught the eye of emergency pediatrician and blogger, Dr. Free Hess, who’s crusading against videos like this.
Dr. Hess’ blog article is trending across the internet and bringing light to the dark world of teaching suicide disguised as kids' videos.
Team 12’s Mike Gonzalez spoke with Nikki Kontz, director of Teen Lifeline, a suicide prevention organization in Phoenix, about how you can keep your kids safe online. We have to warn you, some of the clips you’ll see may be disturbing.
This video, created by Youtuber Filthy Frank, who has more than 6 million subscribers, is filled with tips on how to cut your wrists. It was disturbing enough to catch the eye of Dr. Free Hess, who wrote about it on her blog Pediamom.com.
Nikki Kontz, Director of Teen Lifeline, a suicide prevention organization, also got wind of the disturbing video post and says videos like this can have real consequences.
"To see someone make a joke out of their thoughts and feelings can be painful and make them feel even more alone and discounted in this world," said Kontz.
The suicide instructions are positioned between clips from the Nintendo game Splatoon and says, "Remember kids, sideways for attention, longways for results."
Dr. Hess highlighted seven more disturbing videos she found, videos YouTube has removed from their site.
"The other thing is we need to watch what our kids our watching and their search history," said Kontz.
Kontz says we need to teach our kids that alerting providers like YouTube about disturbing content is okay and it’s not telling on someone.
"We need to make sure they’re educating them on how to use it. You need to teach them it’s alright to flag, also that you’re not getting in trouble when you report this," said Kontz.
YouTube did release a statement saying in part they rely on the community to police a lot of these sites because they simply can’t catch everything.
You can visit Teen Lifeline's website to learn more or call 800-248-8336.