A mental health timebomb

On 20 January 2014, Lucie Russell, campaigns director of YoungMinds was quoted thus by The Daily Mail:

“Every day we hear about the unprecedented toxic climate children and young people face in a 24/7 online culture where they can never switch off. Young people tell us they experience a continuous onslaught of stress at school, bullying, sexual pressures and bleak employment prospects. 

When this becomes too much for them they don’t know where to turn for help and when they do often the support just isn’t there for them. We are sitting on a mental health timebomb.”

The Mail’s Ian Drury added:

“Fear of failure, bullying, the burden of trying to be thin and attractive, and depression were among the multiple threats facing young people. And almost a quarter of youngsters questioned said their relationships with their peers had been harmed after viewing online porn, according to the poll…

The survey, commissioned by national charity YoungMinds, adds to a growing body of evidence that UK youngsters are among the unhappiest in the world. The study, which questioned 2,000 children and young people aged 11 to 25, found… 50 per cent of 11-14 year olds have viewed online porn, with four out of ten of these admitting it affected their relationships with their friends. 

Half of youngsters have been bullied. 40 per cent of 11-14 year olds skip meals to stay thin and one-third don't know where to turn to get help when they feel depressed or anxious. They are bombarded with sexualised images and the scourge of online porn. A survey in October last year found 60 per cent had been asked to take an explicit self-portrait - a 'sext' - on their mobile phones.

In 2012 a group called the Save Childhood Movement… found increasing numbers of children were failing to develop properly at a young age because of the pressures of modern life. The powerful lobby of childcare experts said that many under-16s spent too much time sat unsupervised in front of televisions, games consoles and the internet. Children were also among the most tested in the Western world and more likely to be exposed to junk food and poor diets.”

Guinea pigs. That’s what our kids are. That’s what we are still. Guinea pigs in some dire, Satanic experiment where the national majority is forever ‘tested’, ‘bombarded’, ‘exposed’ and ‘scourged’ by the global few.

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