Mental health, time to talk week!

Over the years mental health has been a big problem for society, this week schools across the country have been involved in Time To Talk Week. This week people break down barriers to allow honest and non-judgmental discussions about dating, healthy relationships, bullying, abuse and self-consciousness to build up confidence and help people with mental health issues.

One of the main problems that cause mental health issues is bullying, there are many forms of bullying, these are some: Physical bulling, which includes hitting, kicking, tripping, pinching, punching and pushing  and causes both long and short term damage. Cyber-bullying, which is where people bully people online mostly on social media, this can be done anonymously, which is a bigger advantage for the bully. Social bullying, this includes name calling, rumors and leaving people out.

At the end of 2016 a popular app came about, letting people all over the world post anonymous comments about you. It reached a sudden worldwide success by mid-2017, it became number one app over 30 countries and gained a quarter of a billion accounts and more than 1 billion page views, even though this sounds like a popular fun app, it has a dark turn, this sparked fears of parents after being notoriously used as a weapon for cyber-bullying. People have received harsh and life threatening comments that could result to deaths or an even more of an increase of mental health issues. Fears that vulnerable teenagers at risk from bullying, self-harming, starving and committing suicide are concerning parents and children’s organisation around the world.

Many petitions and protests have gone out to try and shut this app down, it has caused more harm than good and have left many children and teenagers in danger.

We will keep you updated on what will happen in the future, hopefully this monstrous app will be shut down.

Mia, Charlotte, Mia and Hannah