A New Online Threat to Teens

Adolescence is a period of increased susceptibility to mental health issues, and a time when emotional distress appears for the first time for many. Often, parents of struggling teens and young adults report that their kid’s childhood was carefree, unencumbered by any signs of the approaching storm. There may be an evolutionary reason why mental struggles frequently present at this juncture. Paleoanthropologists have noted that, as our brains became more complex, adolescence evolved. This extended period of development conferred benefits but also gave human youth unique vulnerabilities. Adolescent initiation rites—which are present in nearly every pre-modern society—may have been a cultural adaptation meant to help compensate for these vulnerabilities. “One of the probable consequences of…the evolution of an adolescent period is that humans became much more susceptible to psychopathology than other species,” writes Gary Clark, author of Jung and the Evolutionary Sciences. “Further, ritual life, and particularly adolescent initiation rites, may be cultural technologies designed to facilitate this difficult socio-cognitive transition.”¹

Such rites, then, may be very important in helping young people reach adulthood safely. In his book The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul, mythologist Michael Meade notes that young people have an innate need to “throw themselves into the fires of life”² in order to become initiated into adulthood. Could the lack of such rites in our modern culture offer a partial explanation for the increase in mental health concerns among adolescents and young adults? Could it also help explain some of the more troubling ways that young people seek meaning and belonging? “When young people are not invited into a conscious rite of transition and self-discovery,” writes Meade, “they attempt to invent their own ceremonies to fill the void. Since both life and death are involved at every major transition, things can go darkly awry.”³

The internet has brought with it new ways in which things can go darkly awry. Parents may not be aware of groups targeting children online. According to the FBI, these groups seek out minors, using extortion to encourage them to self-harm, produce child sexual abuse material, and even to commit suicide. According to those who follow the activities of these groups, the first approach is often made in seemingly innocuous online spaces where kids normally congregate, such as Roblox. From there, they are lured into private Discord servers or Telegram channels where the grooming becomes more intense. “The groups control their victims through extreme fear and many members have an end-goal of forcing the minors they extort into committing suicide on live-stream for their own entertainment or their own sense of fame,” according to a public service announcement issued by the FBI in September of 2023.

In November 2021, 25-year-old Sam Hervey livestreamed his suicide on Discord. More than two dozen people watched, laughing and cheering as he doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. Hervey had been going through a significant mental health crisis and was already considering suicide when a 15-year-old girl made contact with him online and began to encourage him to go through with his plans. The girl, who went by the username Fmlk, was associated with a loose online group known as 764, and was encouraging Hervey’s suicide in an effort to gain credibility and status.

Gillian*, a lawyer and a mother of three, knows first-hand how easily children can get swept into this dark, online world. She agreed to speak with me about her family’s experience. Her daughter was first groomed by 764 when she was only 9 or 10. Gillian and her husband noticed immediate changes in their daughter’s mental health but had no idea what had caused it. “All of a sudden, she was crying, saying she believed she was a narcissist, and nothing we could say would talk her out of it,” Gillian reported to me when I spoke with her.

Her daughter continued to reach for diagnostic labels for herself—ADHD, then autism, then borderline personality disorder, among others. Gillian now recognizes this self-diagnosis as part of the indoctrination of 764. “I know of a 13-year-old who demanded that her parents take her to a mental hospital,” she said. In the online world of 764 and other similar groups, a mental health diagnosis and/or evidence of pathology is a “badge of honor,” according to Gillian.

Gillian’s daughter also began cutting, a common form of self-harm usually associated with teens who are struggling with family dysfunction, difficulties with affect regulation, or other psychological problems. Gillian notes that cutting has taken on new significance within the context of violent online groups. “With most kids, the cutting is a response to emotional distress,” she says. “But when kids are groomed to cut by group members, the cutting produces psychological distress.”

In groups such as 764, minors are encouraged to engage in cutting and other forms of self-harm. They may be extorted into “fansigning”—carving the username of their groomer into their skin. The victim may film herself doing this or provide photos to be shared on social media, which will confer status on her groomer. In these online communities, cutting is a way for groomers to gain a reputation, but for the victims, it becomes a way of signaling group identity. In online spaces such as X, users glorify self-harm and encourage each other to cut deeper. Gillian’s daughter connected with her online friends through cutting and sharing photos of cuts. “Cutting shows that you are badass,” notes Gillian.

Gillian does not believe that her daughter would be struggling with major mental health issues if she had not been exposed to online grooming by 764. It has been difficult for Gillian to find mental health providers who understand the dynamics involved in her daughter’s case. “She was groomed to self-harm, but therapists see the self-harm as a symptom,” she noted. “And because she’s been so influenced by this dark world, now she is struggling in earnest. But it’s like her mental illness was cultivated online.”

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Gillian would like other parents to be aware that, unbeknownst to them, their children may be influenced by others online who encourage self-diagnosis, self-harm, and even suicide. “Therapists may not know what to look for and therefore may miss the warning signs,” she shared.

Teenagers are especially susceptible to group dynamics in which issues of status, belonging, and identity are involved—an expression of their need, perhaps, to find ways to become initiated and cross the perilous bridge to adulthood.

Of his own efforts to self-initiate, Meade writes: “We didn’t so much wish to die as to be born into a greater life where we could feel significant and meaningful.”⁴ The adolescent need to test oneself to find meaning and belonging is normal. Online groups such as 764 pervert this healthy impulse and can lead teens astray with dark new possibilities.

*Gillian's name and identifying details have been changed to protect her privacy.

If you or someone you love is contemplating suicide, seek help immediately. For help 24/7 dial 988 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. To find a therapist near you, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.