The wrong kind of support

Buried in a CNET article about students' filtering workarounds is an aside about the kind of support parents don't want their kids to have. Under the apt heading "Scarier than MySpace," writer Stephanie Olsen reports there are some 500 discussion boards on the Web about self-mutilation (up from 400 a year ago). Young people who cut themselves "are increasingly turning to the Internet to vent and commiserate with others about their secret affliction, according to a new study from Cornell University psychologists." Olsen adds that "of the 3,200 messages analyzed, nearly a third of the comments [mostly from girls 14-20] were supportive in nature," another 15% were about "sharing methods for cutting or burning oneself or concealing the behavior," and 20% "about triggers and motivation for self-hurting practices." These boards tend to support the behavior by making it seem "normal," Olsen cites the Cornell researchers as saying. An example she gives is Teen-moods.net, "a Web site for depressed teens … who 'self-hurt'." In the same category are pro-anorexia sites (see this Associated Press report).