Graphic social media posts about the devastating earthquakes that hit Türkiye on Feb. 6 can negatively affect children's psychology as platforms race to post breaking news, an expert said, offering advice about how to shield young eyes from the bombardment of information.
The earthquakes, with an epicenter in Kahramanmaraş, affected 11 provinces in the country's southeast. The disaster shocked the whole country with its magnitude, causing widespread destruction both materially and morally. Quite quickly, social media shares spiked like an avalanche. Reporting and sharing updates in the earthquake zone led to a high number of views all over the world. As the sharing of images of people under the rubble and destroyed buildings spread sadness and fear in the country, experts also assessed how and in what way these would affect the viewers, especially children.
The public must be careful about the amount of disaster-related content they engage with, Dr. Gülnur Şen, a mental health specialist and psychotherapist, said and added, "We must pay attention to the posts made on social media platforms to not create secondary trauma."
Regarding how we should approach the mental health of children exposed to the trauma of the earthquakes, Şen said, "First of all, of course, both the children who experienced the earthquake and those who watched this all on screens have been greatly affected, although they were exposed to different situations."
"In order to avoid these risks, restricting the use of social media is what we suggest. This restriction may be a little more difficult for adolescents, but we definitely need to supervise younger children," she explained.
She also placed a strong emphasis on the importance of protecting the privacy of the children who survived the quakes. "For the news about young survivors, in particular, their faces must be blurred in order not to negatively affect their future. As a country, we supported each other really well, we've tried to heal our wounds, we are still rushing to meet the basic needs of our quake victims, but psychological first aid should be prioritized too."
Just like adults, children have an infinite variety of personalities, which also means they react quite differently to stressful situations. This pattern has also been seen in the coping mechanisms of children who experienced the tremors firsthand. "Some children reacted to what they experienced, while others remained silent. Many of these children's emotional reactions are questioned and negatively evaluated. 'How emotionless is this child? He didn't react at all,' some may say. But it is normal that some children react this way. There is no rule that every person or every child will express the same reaction. Some may surface later. If the child remains emotionally neutral for more than a month, it would be beneficial to consult a child psychiatrist. Likewise, if our physical and mental symptoms exceed a month, we should definitely see a mental health professional," Şen emphasized.
Pointing out that the same sensitivity to privacy should also be shown when reporting on the survivors' recollection of what they witnessed, she explained: "We should not force people who experienced the earthquake to tell their personal details. As the trauma affects not only those who lived through it but also those who listen to their stories ... Likewise, sympathetic statements like 'everything will be fine, at least you're alive' may create guilt for the person at that moment as they are alive but lost their loved ones."
Psychosocial services are being provided to the families and children of the earthquake victims, which experts say are of great importance for ensuring individual and social well-being in disaster periods. "In order to heal the wounds in earthquake areas, the aim is to minimize the effects of trauma experienced by our citizens with our psycho-social support teams," she also explained.
"For now, three teams are working in Adıyaman and one team is in Malatya. Our teams of professional staff and support staff are in the earthquake zone with one-week rotations. We organize activities to help the earthquake survivors overcome the trauma and provide them with psychological support."
