How fantastic. That means from age 18 we can allow men on social media!

Nobody denies all the effects of social media are negative. After all, if they were, nobody would use them. So there are benefits to it.

It also isn't news, really. The Dutch 'MIND Hulplijn' [1] in their former carnation 'Stichting Korrelatie' had a pilot with an online forum where people with mental issues could connect with each other. It eventually decided to close the forum because of users talking each other down in regard to the subject of suicide (edit: and automutilation). However, the effect of a support group was also clearly there which was also a reason why they were reluctant to close it down.

What I'd like to know is how the effect would be compared to a forum or real-life support group. Because comparing social media with 'no help' or 'loneliness' obviously isn't fair.

[1] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIND_Hulplijn

No, in both genders. You have to click on the link to the paper [0]:

>Gender was approximately equal, with 50.8% being female.

If anything, the data is more accurate for females, since there are 1.6pp more females.

[0]: https://www.mdpi.com/3679792