Suicide rates among girls have grown at a faster rate than boys in recent years, thanks to younger access to social media and the impact of the COVID lockdowns, according to experts.
Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among 10- to 14-year-olds in the US, with marked increases noted between 2007 and 2021, according to a new in JAMA pediatrics an American Medical Association-published medical journal released Tuesday.
Historically, male suicide rates have been higher than female suicide rates across all age groups, but between 2007 and 2017, the suicide rate for girls aged 10 to 19 increased far more than the rate for males.
While huge emphasis in recent years has been placed on the dangers of toxic online spaces on young boys — such as Andrew Tate’s Manosphere — commentators may have overlooked how susceptible young girls were to pernicious content on social media, according to the report’s author, Dr. Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University.
“From roughly 2010 to 2019, I think it’s pretty clear that social media and smartphones were behind a lot of that increase in suicides, especially for girls,” Twenge, author of “10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World,” told The Post.
“Social media use is more strongly linked to depression and other mental health issues among girls than it is among boys,” she said.
“And this age group really saw an increase in social media use post-2020.”
Teens began spending “a lot more time online and a lot less time with friends in person, and a lot less time sleeping,” said Twenge, who was an expert witness for the prosecution in August’s landmark trial against Meta.
While young people being subject to peer pressure and bullying is nothing new, Twenge warns that social media has turbocharged that by replacing peer dynamics with concrete metrics.
“Popularity has become a number,” she said. “It used to be, ‘This girl or that girl is more popular,’ but now, it’s ‘How many followers do you have? How many likes did you get on this post?’”
For girls, “those likes are often based on sexualized appearance, which is a lot of pressure, especially for girls in that 10 to 14 age group,” Twenge said.
As girls’ feedback and social approval became more closely tied to “how much skin you show,” Twenge blames apps such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat for creating a “perfect storm.”
According to Meta’s own research, girls experience a “grief spiral” of being constantly exposed to influencers with “perfect” bodies, making them feel bad about themselves.
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Male social comparisons tend to be “agentic,” centered on achievable actions such as working out, getting a job, or making money, Twenge explained.