Suicide rates among girls aged 10 to 14 have increased at a faster pace than for boys in recent years, with experts attributing the trend to a confluence of factors including increased social media use and the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns.
According to a report published in JAMA Pediatrics, suicide is now the second leading cause of death for U.S. children aged 10 to 14. The period between 2007 and 2021 saw marked increases in these rates. While historically male suicide rates have been higher, the rate for girls aged 10 to 19 grew significantly more than for males between 2007 and 2017.
Dr. Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of the study, suggests that increased exposure to social media has disproportionately affected young girls. "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 stated. She noted that social media use is more strongly linked to depression and other mental health issues in girls compared to boys.
The pandemic further exacerbated these trends, with teens spending more time online, less time with friends in person, and experiencing reduced sleep. Twenge highlighted that social media has intensified peer dynamics by quantifying social interactions. "Popularity has become a number," she observed, pointing to metrics like followers and likes, which for girls, are often tied to sexualized appearance, creating significant pressure for those between 10 and 14 years old.
Meta's internal research indicates that girls can experience a "grief spiral" from constant exposure to idealized images of influencers, leading to negative self-perception. Twenge contrasted this with boys' social comparisons, which tend to be more "agentic" and focused on achievable actions like career or fitness goals. For girls, these comparisons are primarily rooted in physical appearance, which is less malleable.
Twenge also emphasized the impact of exposing younger children to social media, bringing them into potentially toxic online environments at an earlier developmental stage. Following the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, suicide rates among boys aged 10 to 14, which had been rising, began to decrease. In contrast, rates for girls in the same age group continued to climb. Twenge attributes the decline in male rates to the easing of pandemic restrictions, increased public attention on male suicide, and more effective prevention programs for boys.
To address the rising rates, Twenge called for the enforcement of existing age limits to keep children under 13 off social media, noting the current 13-year-old minimum was a compromise from 1998 and has not been updated. She also proposed that the U.S. could adopt measures similar to Australia's, requiring users to be 16 or older for an account, or implement stricter age verification. Additionally, she suggested automatically blocking social media access for minors between midnight and 6 a.m. to combat sleep deprivation, a significant risk factor for depression and self-harm.
Recent data indicates a sharp increase in children's suicide-related emergency visits, with a 74% spike between 2016 and 2022, according to an article in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Representatives for Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta did not respond to requests for comment.