Rajya Sabha member raises concern over social media impact on mental health of adolescents

A Rajya Sabha member of the Congress party on Wednesday (February 11, 2026) expressed concern over the rising mental health crisis among adolescents due to social media, saying the “youth are not able to identify the reality and the fantasy world”.

In recent weeks, there have been instances of young students ending their lives, apparently due to ill-effects, including loneliness and isolation, triggered by excessive use of online platforms.

Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha during the Zero Hour, Congress MP Jebi Mather Hisham referred to an incident from Chotanikara, near Kochi, where a 16-year-old girl allegedly ended her life as she was under grief following the death of an online friend.

The MP said she spoke with her teacher and principal this morning, and they shared the concern about how social media is influencing youth and adolescents.

“They share the concern that the children, these adolescents, youth are not able to identify the reality and the fantasy world. They’ll create a virtual world, influenced by social media, and especially they share the concern of this Korean content, online games, and pop that is available in the country now,” Ms. Hisham said.

She also referred to the death of three sisters in Ghaziabad, who too had a link with Korean content.

“So all these triggered me to think that the children who should be playing and laughing and learning and acquiring skills from school and teachers while they are taking such extreme steps of suicide,” the MP from Kerala said.

Emphasising that the matter needs serious attention by the government, she said recent data shows behavioural patterns, cyber bullying, and the tendency to end one’s life.

“And all these are linked with the situation which they are living in,” she said, while making a strong case for integrating mental health issues with academics.

In his Zero Hour mention, Ashok Kumar Mittal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stressed the need for fixing accountability of public servants to curb administrative apathy in the wake of deaths due to potholes and the delayed response of the administration.

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