A mother has told how the online world has affected her daughter’s mental health, leading her to ditch her smartphone.
Lucy Smith, 52, from Bristol, has seen first-hand how the online world can affect young people, as it fueled her daughter’s depression and restricted eating.
Freya, not her real name, got a cell phone from her parents around the age of eight and started filming and uploading videos to her YouTube channel.
She amassed thousands of followers and views by showcasing her toy collection on the Internet and showing her subscribers tours of her nursery.
‘She even made money from it. We helped her with that, me and her dad, we even helped her make her YouTube channel, we followed all the comments,” Lucy told MailOnline.
‘We helped with uploading content and things like that. But she learned all those skills, like making videos and editing them. It was all in line with the things we thought she liked and wanted to do.
Lucy Smith, 52, from Bristol (pictured) has seen first-hand how the online world can affect young people as it fueled her daughter’s depression and limited eating
‘It was age appropriate because it was dolls and nurseries and she would do things like give me a tour of the nursery and it was all about the dolls she had. They were things that other kids clicked on.”
Freya, who is now 17 years old, stopped making YouTube videos when she was 11 years old, around the time she was diagnosed as autistic.
“We had some pretty big mental health issues and (Freya) didn’t want to live anymore. So we had to spend a number of years trying to deal with the fact that she didn’t want to live anymore and didn’t want to be part of a world,” Lucy said.
The mother-of-two said it was a “disturbing” time for her, adding: “MrThe purpose of her life became to keep her alive.”
Lucy’s son was also diagnosed as autistic around the same time, and she said he also felt “very sad.”
‘We had a whole family of people who didn’t want to live anymore. That can be really hard and you just fight and you get up every day and take care of them when they need to be taken care of. You find strategies and ways to help them get to where we want them to be.”
Freya still had a phone and was still engaging with content online, some of which was damaging to her mental health.
‘She was still online, but not in contact with many other people at the same time. She was very depressed. She has written about (how) social media algorithms make you darker and darker,” Lucy said.
“She was eating restrictively, she was exercising excessively, she was doing so many things.”
‘She would watch things that fueled depression or scroll all day. She would look up how many calories are in 10 grapes. There was restrictive eating, there was a lack of communication with other people, all those things were happening.”
Freya’s mental health had deteriorated so drastically by the time she was 15 that she told her mother she didn’t want her phone anymore and ordered it taken away.
“She said ‘take it away, I don’t want it. I want a brick phone. Give me a Nokia brick,’” Lucy said.
Freya found that once she stopped using her smartphone, she discovered things about herself that she had never realized before because she was stuck in an endless cycle of scrolling online.
She enjoys making her own clothes, journaling and crafting – activities she never realized she enjoyed until she left social media behind.
“I would say to her now, ‘God, you’re really self-aware, you’re really mature in what you say.’ And she says, “Mom, when you don’t have social media, you have a lot of time to think about yourself and you have a lot of time to do a lot of other things,” the mother added.
About a year ago, Freya bought herself a second-hand smartphone because she needed to access her university education. but she then sold it to her brother.
Freya sought out content online that would fuel her restrictive diet and depression (stock image)
Lucy works for an organization called Digital Safety Community Interest Company, which discusses the impact of smartphones on young people’s mental health and development
“She said, ‘I don’t want it anymore, I’m going to use my Nokia again, I don’t need it, I don’t want it.’” Lucy said.
“She still uses an iPad and has access to the apps, but what she’s done is thrown everything away and deliberately used things that are meaningful to her and help her with her life, education or the things she wants to achieve.”
Lucy works for an organization called Digital Safety Community Interest Company, which discusses the impact of smartphones on young people’s mental health and development.
But also runs her own company called Inclusive changewhich aims to help people understand neurodiversity.
“There are a lot of people who are just not aware of how their mental health and their neurodiversity affects them and how they are affected by the big companies and people who are trying to get our attention because it’s advertising and money.
‘There are a lot of parents who send me an email saying, “Please help me, my kids are stuck in the house. My kids can’t get out. My kids are really sad,” and things like that. I always get that.’
Recognized by Rishi Sunak for the organisation’s work, Lucy met the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street earlier this year, along with her husband and Jack Lopresti, the MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke.
The Digital Safety Community Interest Company hosted a conference in September focused on suicide prevention and will hold another conference in 2024 to further discuss the impact of smartphones.
Lucy believes that educating people about the online world is important to help them make good choices.
‘From the age of nine, you have something in your hand that exposes a young child to pornography, racism, homophobia, misogyny, all those things that nine-year-olds and ten-year-olds are not mentally mature enough for. to process,” she said.
“They shouldn’t be exposed to these things, but they are and we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. That will not happen. But one of the things we need to do is support parents and young people in making choices about their use of smartphones.”
The Online Safety Bill received royal assent in October and has become law, meaning the legal responsibility will fall on tech companies to prevent and remove illegal content such as terrorism and revenge pornography.
Companies will also need to prevent children from seeing harmful material such as bullying, pornography and content that promotes self-harm and eating disorders.
If they don’t follow the rules, they can face heavy fines and even prison sentences.
As the bill became law, Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said: ‘Today will go down as a historic moment that will ensure the online security of British society not only now, but for decades to come.
“I am immensely proud of the work that has gone into the Online Safety Act, from its inception to the law it is today. The bill protects freedom of expression, gives adults more power and will ensure that platforms remove illegal content.
‘However, the core of this bill is the protection of children. I want to thank the campaigners, parliamentarians, abuse survivors and charities who have worked tirelessly not only to get this bill across the finish line, but to ensure it makes Britain the safest place in the world to be online. ‘
If you would like to speak to someone about an eating disorder, you can contact BEAT for free at:
- England Helpline: 0808 801 0677
- Scotland Helpline: 0808 801 0432
- Wales helpline: 0808 801 0433
- Northern Ireland Helpline: 0808 801 0434
You can also contact the Samaritans for 27/4 free support on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org
