YouTube Self-Mutilation Videos Shock Parents, Therapists

Self cutter shows "no more" cut into flesh on YouTube.

/ YouTube

(CBS/AP) YouTube is supposed to be the place for piano-playing kittens and college hijinks, but a disturbing new trend - young people cutting into their own flesh - is attracting million of viewers and becoming a growing concern for therapists that treat self mutilators, also known as "cutters."

That's according to a new study published in Pediatrics which analyzed the top 100 most viewed videos showing self injury. Researchers found the top videos had been viewed more than 2.3 million times and often got favorable ratings from viewers. Sixty-four percent showed cutting. The rest showed other types of self mutilation.

Many videos show bloody live enactments or graphic photos of people cutting their arms or legs with razors or other sharp objects, the study found. Many also glamorize self-injury and few videos discourage it, the study authors said.

They also feature haunting music and rich imagery that may attract young self-injurers and trigger the behavior, especially in those who have just started to self-injure, the authors suggest.

Self-injury is most common among young people. Between 14 percent and 24 percent of teens and young adults have engaged in self-injury at least once, said Stephen Lewis, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Guelph in Ontario and study co-author. Cutting is among the most common methods.

"Teenagers are doing it. Mostly women. Ninety-fire, 95 percent of the people that were involved, that they looked at in this study, were women," psychologist and "Early Show" contributor Dr. Jennifer Hartstein explained to co-anchor Erica Hill Monday. "It goes across genders, across cultures, and really, by 18, usually, is less."

"It is not suicide-intentioned most of the time," Hartstein said. "The aim here is not to kill themselves. Although, because of the severity of their cutting, they might. The aim is really to regulate emotion. So that can be through cutting, burning, picking their skin, picking at wounds, any of those things. But they feel something so intensely that the self-injury actually modulates emotion for them, rather than a healthier coping skill like you and I might have of going running or going to the gym or something like that."

What can parents do? Get online, watch the videos, talk to your child's doctor or therapist, say experts and most importantly, "talk to your kids," says Hartstein. "That's what you've gotta do."

You can find the study abstract here.

[whiteguysrule]

Very simple you can control, and I can find sharp objects!

[jsmilam1]

It shouldn't shock anyone. We have taken prayer out of school,children are not taught good morals as they should be. I know what it is believe it or not IT IS DEMONIC just read Mark. Chapter.5 : 4-5. These teens need DELIVERANCE. The bible tells us about self cutting don't be passing it off as just tending. God bless our youth.

[VoodooSG]

Remember kids, it's down the road, not across the street! LOL

[scramcannon]

Replace all YouTube self mutilation vidoes with shots of puppies.

[Joncj5]

Not to be rude, but that is a stupid idea. You sound like a parent from 50 years ago that hide things from their kids. When I was growing up we weren't told about drugs, sex, gay people, racial issues, why countries go to war or anything we really needed to know about.

I want my kids to see these videos, so I can tell them if they scar themselves like this, they'll never enjoy going to the beach. They'll have a hard time getting a job. Someone they might meet might be afraid of them, who might have otherwise be a good partner. That I love them and if they did that it would hurt me also.

I want them to see videos of people doing drugs so they can see how it makes people act, before they might try them not knowing how silly it makes them look. I want them to see meth addicts who have caved in faces and missing teeth. I want my kids to see the horrors the world has to offer, so they will not go down those paths. To hide the realities of life is to stiffle and lie to them.

Life isn't about puppies. It's sometimes about cruel realities and people shouldn't turn their heads and hope their kids live in a bubble. Have you ever seen a car crash on Cops? Do you thnk that makes people want to get in a car crash? These videos don't make kids do anything unless they are already predisposed to. Accepting gay people doesn't make people gay.

Hide your kids under a blanket if you want, but I'm not doing that.

[foodandart]

Once again, America's soccer moms and dads, living in their work-day dreary lives, all caught up in the their own comings and goings have NO idea what their innocent 'little darlings' are up to..

This is not at all shocking to me.. I'm one of the those that actually *takes time* to listen to and pay attention to what kids are thinking.. and why.

I'd cut myself too, if I had parents as narcissistic as some of the kids I know and talk to have.