I’m young and grew up with the Internet. I was a depressed kid and spent the years from age 10-12 on a few websites to try to help myself. I definitely saw a lot on those sites that I thought was normal, but most definitely was not.

The main thing I can remember is chatting with a person in their 40s on a site made for venting problems. I told them I was 11, so they knew that part. They explained to me how they would spank themself. I literally didn’t realize that was sexual? I was just trying to talk about depression?

Another thing was the mass amount of harmful content there was regarding suicide, self-harm, etc. A few websites that would explain in detail how each suicide method worked. The pro-ana stuff. Blogs where people would share self-harm photos.

I feel like the Internet has only gotten worse since then, and it terrifies me.