Over 140 children have contacted Childline since February over self-harm
Michael Bolton
Approximately 145 children have reached out to Childline to talk about self-harm, the ISPCC's chief executive John Church has said.
His comments follow an investigation by RTÉ's Prime Time which showed users as young as 13 are being exposed to videos relating to self-harm and suicide on TikTok.
Mr Church said he was not surprised by the findings of the investigation, calling on social media platforms to do more to protect children from harmful content.
"At Childline, we hear from children and young people everyday about the effect that technology can have on their mental health, but to see it played out in real time was truly shocking.
"Since February alone, 145 children have reached out to us at Childline to talk about self-harm, and 65 of those children are repeat contacts who have then gone on to reach out to us for help with suicide ideation," Mr Chuch said.
He added that behind each of those calls to Childline "is a child or young person desperate for help".
Speaking about social media companies, Mr Church stressed they are "for-profit businesses that are not in the business of child protection".
"It is painfully evident from RTÉ's investigation that they are pumping out the most dangerous messages possible to already vulnerable children, and it is high time steps are taken to address dangerous algorithmic amplification."
He added that Ireland must have comprehensive regulations and legislation to tackle the issue.
The comments come after representatives from TikTok told the Oireachtas Children’s Committee on Tuesday that it removes 80 million accounts of under-age users every year.
Fine Gael senator Mary Seery Kearney raised concern about social media platforms' "deliberate manipulation" of users and resultant “behaviour modification”.
TikTok’s public policy lead for child safety, Chloe Setter, said she "totally appreciates" the senator’s concerns, but added there is no agreement among experts on what amount of time is considered "good".