A single video. Less than 30 seconds.
A lifetime of consequences.

The deeply disturbing story of Frazer, who was just 12 years old when a friend showed him a graphic suicide video on a smartphone at school. That single exposure left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, a diagnosis confirmed years later.

This is not rare. And it is not happening “elsewhere”.
As Emily Sehmer, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and member of Health Professionals for Safer Screens, explains:

“There’s no doubt that PTSD can be caused by content online… What is difficult is that we don’t always know what children have seen. They don’t want to talk to parents or teachers. Children are often alone with their thoughts and deal with this trauma in isolation.”

This content is reaching children through other children’s phones, often during the school day, in corridors, playgrounds, and lunch queues. So-called “out of sight” phone policies are not working and are almost impossible to police in reality.

What children are being exposed to, suicides, extreme violence, sexual harm, is material many adults would struggle to process, let alone a developing brain.
Health professionals are increasingly warning that unrestricted access to violent online content is contributing to anxiety, depression, self-harm and trauma in young people. Yet we continue to expect schools and families to manage this alone.