The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles county court, targets Meta Platforms (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Snap Inc. (owner of Snapchat), ByteDance (parent company of TikTok), and Alphabet (which owns YouTube and Google).

The complaint alleges that these platforms, with their addictive design choices, exacerbate mental health issues among Native youth.

According to the Pew Research Center, virtually all US teenagers use social media and roughly one in six describes their use as "almost constant".

Lonna Jackson-Street, chairperson of the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota, highlighted the vulnerability of Native youth to the relentless scrolling encouraged by social media.

"Endless scrolling is rewiring our teenagers' brains" stated Gena Kakkak, chairwoman of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.

Kakkak emphasised the demand for accountability. "We are demanding these social media corporations take responsibility for intentionally creating dangerous features that ramp up the compulsive use of social media by the youth on our Reservation."

The lawsuit describes "a sophisticated and intentional effort that has caused a continuing, substantial and long-term burden to the Tribe and its members".

Furthermore, the lawsuit contends that resources from vital programmes have been diverted to address problems social media have caused.

Disproportionately high suicide rates

Similar legal actions are underway across the US with schools, cities and states accusing social media companies of exploiting young users. New York City and Ontario school boards have voiced concerns over the impact on mental health and education.

In response to the lawsuit, Google denied the allegations. "Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work" Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement.

Snap Inc. reiterated its dedication to fostering user connections while acknowledging the need for ongoing improvement.

Native Americans see disproportionately high suicide rates, compounded by limited access to mental health care and historical trauma.

Social media can offer connections to culture and community. However it exposes users to discrimination and lacks adequate policies to address these issues.

Andrea Wiglesworth, a researcher on stress in Native populations, highlighted the complex interplay between cultural identity and online experiences. She stressed the importance of Indigenous communities navigating these digital spaces responsibly.

While research on the impact of social media on mental health is ongoing, experts emphasise the need for regulation to protect young users. Calls for legislative action to curb exploitative practices and promote online safety have gained bipartisan support.

Where to get help

• In a life-threatening situation, call 111
• 1737, Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor
• Anxiety New Zealand 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)
• Depression.org.nz 0800 111 757 or text 4202
• Lifeline 0800 543 354
• Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254
• Samaritans 0800 726 666
• Suicide Crisis Helpline 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
• Yellow Brick Road 0800 732 825
• thelowdown.co.nz Web chat, email chat or free text 5626
• What's Up 0800 942 8787 (for up to 18-year-olds). Phone counselling available Monday-Friday, noon-11pm and weekends, 3pm-11pm. Online chat is available 3pm-10pm daily
• Youthline 0800 376 633, free text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz and find online chat and other support options here

Sources

AP News

CathNews New Zealand

It has also focused attention once more on mental health in China, public awareness of which has burgeoned since the turn of the century, albeit amid an ongoing struggle to meet demand for psychological and psychiatric services.

Many in the country are at risk of depression - especially young adults, according to a recent survey.

Yet China currently has just under two psychiatrists per 100,000 head of population, compared with a developed world average of just over nine, according to the World Health Organisation.

Read More

According to data from last year, the nationwide suicide rate has risen to 7.37 per 100,000 people from 6.64 the year before.

Among Thai teenagers between the ages of 10 and 19, the rate is five per 100,000, which is especially worrying, according to experts at the country's Mental Health Department.

Many youngsters commit suicide after feeling depressed over their situation in school or at home, experts say.

Read More

Mental health experts are describing it as "a silent pandemic of psychological distress."

Last month Koi Tu, a think tank and research centre at the University of Auckland, published a commentary Youth Mental Health in Aotearoa New Zealand: Greater Urgency Required.

Sir Peter Gluckman, Director of Koi Tu, says it's unacceptable that close to a quarter of New Zealand's youth surveyed are reportedly mentally unwell and that the issue hasn't received the attention and action it deserves.

"We're not talking necessarily here about classic psychiatric illness, of depression, or severe anxiety," says Gluckman.

"We're talking about emotional disturbances sufficient to interfere with a young person optimally developing through life with long term consequences to employment, to learning, to relationship building ... to being satisfied with their lives."

Key insights

• There is a silent pandemic of mental morbidity amongst the global youth population which will have adverse life-course consequences
• The last decade has seen a rapid and concerning rise in youth psychological distress and suicide rates
• Nationally, poor mental health for youth is persistently inequitable and worsening
• Impacts of COVID-19 on youth mental health is likely to be extensive and enduring
• Protection and promotion of mental wellbeing for youth is now a matter of urgency.

The commentary follows the release of the preliminary findings of the Youth19 survey of 7,721 school students aged 13-19 years.

It found that 23% (29% of females and 17% of males) reporting symptoms of depression.

This is approximately twice the rate in 2012 (17% and 9% respectively).

Political parties are putting the issue of mental health strongly in focus.

But experts say a wave of anxiety and mental distress is on the way.

The services that are needed aren't arriving fast enough.

Journalist Laura Walters has been looking into mental health in a series of articles for Newsroom.co.nz.

She told The Detail about the billions being allocated and good intentions that can't be enacted because the personnel aren't in place. But the political will for change is there.

Source

• informedfutures.org
• newsroom.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• scoop.co.nz
• Image: Lynn Grieveson

Health minister Jonathan Coleman said. "One suicide is one too many so we've got to work on getting that rate down, no question about it.

"We just can't have young people with their whole lives ahead of them taking their lives. It's an absolute tragedy." Continue reading

It is complex too for those of us who have experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide.

We are consumed by the question ‘Why?' and caught in self-blame and tortuous thoughts of ‘I should've been there' or ‘I should've done more'.

But one thing that is clear: we all want Pacific youth suicidal behaviours reduced and that means we must work together and not shy away from the issue, or even from the term itself - suicide.

In fact, the word is not the issue, it's the silence around it.

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 800,000 people die by suicide around the world each year, and for 15 to 29-year-olds it is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

New Zealand Ministry of Health data shows that in 2012, 549 people died by suicide - 30 of which were Pacific suicides.

A study I published recently in the New Zealand Medical Journal indicates that over a 17-year period (1996-2013), 22 Pacific lives on average were lost to suicide each year.

Some may consider Pacific numbers, by comparison, small, but what is staggering is that Pacific peoples have the highest rate of suicide attempts, suicide plans and suicidal thoughts than any other ethnic group in New Zealand.

Moreover, while Pacific peoples have higher rates of mental illness than the general population, they are less likely to seek professional help.

Exploring ways to alleviate this problem is something I have been deeply committed to over many years.

In this time, it has become apparent that because Pacific youth suicides are different, a cultural response is exactly what is needed.

Whether this is from the perspective of an island-born, multi-ethnic, or Pacific NZ-born point of view, for those of us who acknowledge our Pacific heritage, this insight is vital to ensuring suicide prevention makes sense to us first, beyond the confines of imperialist assumptions. Continue reading

Sources

• futurelearning article by Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath, a senior lecturer in Pacific Studies, Te Wananga o Waipapa, University of Auckland.
• Image: Radio NZ

For counselling and support

• Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Chinese Lifeline - 0800 888 880
  (for people who speak Mandarin or Cantonese)
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
  (for young people, and their parents, whanau and friends)
• What's Up - 0800 942 8787
  (for 5-18 year olds; 1 pm to 11 pm)
• The Lowdown - visit the website, email team@thelowdown.co.nz or free text 5626 (emails and text messages will be responded to between 12 noon and 12 midnight)
• SPARX - an online self-help tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.

The show depicts the series of events that led to the suicide of high school student Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford).

Each of the 13 episodes follows Hannah's classmate Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) as he attempts to understand Hannah's death while listening to the tapes she narrated telling the stories of the 13 people she believes are responsible for her death.

This is not TV viewing for the faint of heart or any other parts of the soul for that matter.

"13 Reasons" has created a storm of controversy and incited outrage from numerous sides, including members of the Catholic community who claim that the series romanticizes suicide and does nothing to show the role mental illness plays when a person takes his or her own life

Quang Tran, a Jesuit priest with a background in suicide prevention counselling, says that though the show ‘'has good intentions, teenagers who are at risk should not watch without care and support, as it could be triggering.''

Father Tran also finds the show's use of Hannah's posthumous narration as not giving adolescent viewers the proper perspective on the finality of suicide.

‘'The permanence of death must be emphasized for children who developmentally do not understand death,'' Father Tran says. ‘'Even teens with a better understanding may not have the maturity to accept the reality of death's effects.''

What is intriguing is that while the series has created much hoopla since its release on March 31, the book, which was published for the young adult market a decade ago, never raised an eyebrow.

To be fair, the subject matter is much more common in the young adult book market, and so does not stand out nearly as much. But it also speaks to the reality of Netflix's pervasiveness and a viewer's ability to binge an entire series in under 24 hours, leading to an amplification of intensity in a culture with an already voracious appetite for consuming all forms of media all the time. Continue reading

Sources

• America article by Jake Martin, S.J., a special contributor to America.
• Image: Streaming Observer

For counselling and support

• Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Chinese Lifeline - 0800 888 880
  (for people who speak Mandarin or Cantonese)
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
  (for young people, and their parents, whanau and friends)
• What's Up - 0800 942 8787
  (for 5-18 year olds; 1 pm to 11 pm)
• The Lowdown - visit the website, email team@thelowdown.co.nz or free text 5626 (emails and text messages will be responded to between 12 noon and 12 midnight)
• SPARX - an online self-help tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.

It was 10 years ago on a dreary, damp, overcast Monday, around 1 p.m. in a windowless, bare, cinder block room just large enough for a king-size bed, a bedroom converted from a storeroom in a vending machine repair shop, in an aging industrial section of the west end of Tulsa, Okla., that our 26-year-old, beautiful, charming, loving, occasionally brilliant, multitalented, bipolar daughter found a hidden .22 caliber rifle, propped it up between the bedspring and the mattress, rested it on her chest, reached down, pulled the trigger, probably with her right thumb, and died instantly as the bullet ripped through her body, severing her aorta with what the medical examiner later described as a "perforating contact gunshot wound of the chest."

Our soul has been weeping ever since.

I miss her. Her mother and her twin brother miss her. We will always miss her. I want to always miss her. But I want to accept missing her. Someday I will. Her death still hurts, but it's getting better now.

At first, grief emotions attacked from everywhere. There was anger in my oatmeal, regret in the trees in my neighbor's backyard, depression drove my car to the grocery store, and frustration hijacked my dreams, my TV, treadmill and prayer. Continue reading

Sources

• Tom Smith in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Karla Smith Foundation

Tom Smith is president of the Karla Smith Foundation, supporting families affected by mental illness and suicide across the United States.