First Lady Melania Trump has launched an anti-bullying campaign called “Be Best.” It is an outstanding concept and it is a campaign that is desperately needed. It is a campaign that no one is talking about and that is a shame.
My wife and I were watching Fareed Zakaria on CNN recently and heard some startling statistics about children and teen suicide. According to Zakaria, quoting the latest data analysis available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate for white children and teens between 10 and 17 was up 70 percent between 2006 and 2016. Although black children and teens kill themselves less often than white youth do, the rate of increase was higher, data shows.
I look at the above data and shudder. In order to verify the data, I asked my daughter, who is a therapist for a large local medical center, if this was true. She answered it was. I then asked her if there is any way to stop social media bullying and she said, “Not really.”
A federal website, StopBullying.gov, lists a number of suggestions to stop bullying. The first suggestion is for parents and school staff to get evolved. The website suggests steps that can be taken and includes counseling the kids about the dangers, knowing the signs of potential suicide and having state laws to punish bullies. If these steps were taken, the government says, bullying will stop over time. But this agenda is not working and I believe that more drastic steps must be taken.
But wait a minute.
The number of suicides of children and teens is not huge. In 2016, 536 children 10-14 committed suicide and in the same period, youth aged 14-24 committed suicide 5,723 times. Yes, these are not large but they are extremely alarming. What is huge is the rate of increase in children and teen suicides.
A good friend of mine who is gay told me that he had experienced pressure from friends and acquaintances about his gender preference. He said it is important to understand that children don’t have the tools to handle the pressure of bullying. Next, we chatted about the fact that being gay was the No. 1 cause of teen homelessness and finally, we discussed the fact that parents are not involved with their children as much as they should be.
The Atlantic had a wonderful article in the September 2017 edition titled “How Smartphones Destroyed a Generation,” by Jean M. Twenge. In the article, Twenge details how smartphones are disrupting the lives of children and causing all sorts of bad things to happen.
In 2011, 50 percent of the world’s population had cell phones, most of which were smartphones. According to Twenge, an American psychologist who has been studying the phenomenon of youth suicides, the number of youth suicides coincides directly to the amount of time children and teens spend on their phones.
“They make sure to keep up their Snapstreaks, which shows how many days in a row they have Snapchatted with each other,” said Twenge, “Sometimes they have screenshots of particularly ridiculous pictures of friends. It’s good blackmail.”
Social media has certainly caused youth depression that has led to an increased rate of youth suicides, but as Twenge points out, other factors are also creating increased youth depression and suicides. Those include lack of parental involvement, poor teacher and counselor skills and inadequate punishments by law enforcement, to name a few.
Society is becoming more isolated as we are becoming more connected. I realize that it would be a grave mistake to take smartphones away from our children and teens. But we must get children and teens to use their smartphones more responsibly. “Significant effects on both mental health and sleep time appear after two or more hours a day on electronic devices,” said Twenge.
So, the path is clear. Let’s all become involved in Melania’s “Be Best” campaign.
Robert Pembroke is the former chairman and CEO of Pembroke's Inc. in Salt Lake City.