Youth suicide prevention in the digital age

Suicide is a major public health problem and, despite significant effort and investment, rates remain stubbornly high, in particular among young people. As a result, novel approaches that are co-designed with young people are urgently required. In this presentation Prof Robinson will describe two programs of work that have been co-developed with young people, employ innovative methodologies, and have the capacity to be tested and delivered at scale. 

The first is investigating the broad social and structural determinants driving suicide risk in young Australians, combined with an examination of the real-time fluctuations in risk. This includes a national survey examining the factors impacting risk of self-harm and suicide among young Australians right now, including factors such as climate anxiety, childhood trauma and intimate partner violence, online experiences, hope and agency. It is being supplemented by a novel ecological momentary assessment study that is examining the factors that lead to increased risk ‘in the moment’. This will inform the development of a suite of ‘just in time’ interventions that can be deployed to young people where and when they need them.

The second focuses on creating safer online environments for young people experiencing suicide or self-harm by leveraging policy, industry and educational approaches.  It includes our world-first #chatsafe intervention, which comprises evidence-based guidelines and a social media campaign designed to better equip young people to communicate safely online about self-harm and suicide. The guidelines have been translated into 28 languages and the campaign has reached around 13m people worldwide. The guidelines are embedded into Meta’s Safety Centre and included in national and international suicide prevention policies, as well as WHO guidelines for media. This work also includes a suite of studies that identified the steps policymakers and the social media industry should take to improve online safety for young people – including better regulation, cross government and international collaboration, and improved platform safety features.

Together these studies will lead to a better, more contemporary, understanding of how to tackle suicide risk in young people, not just in Australia but worldwide.