In recent years, social media has taken over the minds of youth and influenced them to do many things. In most cases, social media is positive and safe, but like most things, it has a darker side to it. The most recent instance of this darker side of social media is urging people to self-harm using sodium nitrate.
For a while now, social media influencers have played around with the idea of using sodium nitrate to self-harm. This was done with the intent of shocking their audiences. Even if this was done in a joking matter, it is still highly dangerous, especially among people going through mental health issues.
It’s important to recognize just how dangerous joking and messing around with such a topic can really be. Vulnerable people who are already going through feelings of hopelessness might be urged towards self-harm or even suicide using sodium nitrate.
It isn’t always with the intent of shocking users, though. In some cases, the accounts promoting self-harm using sodium nitrate act as a support group for individuals struggling with mental health issues. These accounts provide a forum for sharing harmful ideas, but they also normalize the thought of self-harm, which then leads people to harm themselves.
Social media urges people to self-harm with sodium nitrate because it’s quick and painless, when this isn’t true at all. While yes, it may be painless in most cases, it takes almost half an hour for the poison to set in, leaving the victim with the realization that they are going to die and not enough time to revert their decision.
Platforms online actively monitor their platforms in hopes of removing harmful content, but this is met with mixed results. In some cases, it can work, but the amount of harmful content on the internet and the anonymity it provides make monitoring content difficult.
Now, it may be difficult to remove these things from the internet, but it is definitely not impossible to do. To completely remove harmful things from the internet, it will require a lot of work, such as collaboration between social media companies, mental health professionals, policymakers, and communities. Removing harmful things from the internet isn’t the only thing needed to prevent sodium nitrate suicides. Limitations on the sale of sodium nitrate will also need to be put in place, but in the end, all the effort will be worth it.
