A startling new study shows that youth suicide is on the rise, and it has risen in dramatic fashion.

Datafrom the National Poison Data System shows that there were more than 1.6million cases of kids from 10 to 24-years old attempting suicide by poisonduring the time between 2000 and 2018. A shocking 70 percent of these attemptswere done by females. There was also a huge spike in the rate of attempts atsuicide among those aged 10 to 15.

Whenwe look at the individual years from 2000 to 2018, we can see that suiciderates were fairly steady…up until 2011. However, from 2011 and beyond, therehas been a huge increase. In some cases, it is as much as 300 percent. So, wehave to look at reasons for this.

Duringthat time, there were several societal changes, which certainly could impactthese numbers, specifically social media and smartphones becoming somethingthat youth are using every day. There are several studies that can correlatethis theory. In simple terms, these studies show an increase in suicide among youthaged 12 to 17 and an increase in social media screen time. However, this was nocorrelation between the two when looking at suicide rates among adults.

Thisauthor personally knows, or sadly knew many who have committed suicide and theyrange in ages from 10 years into adulthood. All had one thing in common, andinsatiable appetite for social media use. There is article after article that links social media use withdepression. When many of us are on social media, our inclination is to compareourselves to others. A qourte that rings true is “Comparison is the thief ofjoy” which is so sadly true.

Thisstudy does not totally nor unequivocally establish that social media use causessuicide, of course, but there is certainly a clear connection. When you arelooking at more than a million kids who are at risk of suicide, it is importantthat parents understand this. Everyone has a tough time in their teen years,which parents understand, but what they don’t understand is being a teenagerand totally connected to their peers via digital devices 24/7 with many oftheir peers being MEAN to them!  Doctors,who are supposed to help, don’t understand the digital aspect of this, either.

Thefindings of these studies are also in line with other research on suicide,which is the second leading cause of death for people from age 10 to 24. Atween or teen will full unfettered access to a smartphone and social media isthe equivalent of handing them the keys to the car prior to knowing how todrive or even giving them a loaded gun.

Aseparate study as reported by HuffPo shows a great correlation to all ofthis, too. In this study, which looked at emergency room records, it was notedthat suicide attempts as well as suicidal thoughts doubled from 2005 to 2017.More than 40 percent of these were for children from 5 to 12-years old.

Allof these studies also show that parents are pretty clueless about this. Infact, research shows that about 50 percent of parents who have children whohave considered suicide are totally in the dark about it.

Something has got to be done about this, of course, beforeit gets out of (actually it already is)control. Support and awareness about mental health is certainly a step in the right direction, but parents also must be aware of the great increase of suicide and attempted suicide rates among teens and realize that their child is just at risk of this as any other children. Parents can also do things like limiting their children’s access to medications in the home. It is also important for parents to learn the warning signs and understand that even young kids, who are not yet teenagers, can still have thoughts of suicide. Talking to your kids about it is always a good idea. Taking their phone away is a better idea. Adults too. Stop the madness!

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video